


The Loud Effect

by TimothyD



Series: The Ravenverse/Quoth the Raven’s Loudverse [1]
Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, DC Comics References, Marvel References, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27980199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimothyD/pseuds/TimothyD
Summary: In an alternate universe, a virus ravages Royal Woods and leads to the genesis of several meta humans. Our favorite family find themselves gaining new superpowers and while some use them for good, others use them for evil. One thing is for certain though, things are about to get Loud.
Series: The Ravenverse/Quoth the Raven’s Loudverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049303
Kudos: 4





	1. You Bet Your Ace

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is a story I’m cross posting from FanFiction.Net that I wrote a while ago and a prequel to a big mega epic fanfic I have in the works. Hope you enjoy.

Royal Woods, 6 June 20XX, that was the day that everything changed. It all happened so fast, I still struggle to process how it went down. Up until that day, our life was mostly normal; a bit Loud, but normal. Everything changed when a mysterious virus broke out in Royal Woods. Nobody knew the cause of the outbreak or where the virus had even come from, but it didn’t matter. Our town was devastated by the outbreak with over 100,000 people dying during the epidemic, which unfortunately, included our parents. My siblings and I survived, but we’d never be the same after that. The virus in question wasn’t your average run of the mill illness either, it was a special virus that endowed anyone who was exposed to and survived it whatever power they so desired. Since my siblings and I were all exposed to it early on, I think you can imagine what happened next. Royal Woods recovered rather quickly from the epidemic, rebuilding itself in no time. Mysteriously however, in the aftermath of all this, there were some residents who had gone missing and were assumed dead. My name is Lincoln Loud aka Spider-Ace and this is the story of my struggle to keep my city safe.

It was a mundane Wednesday night for me as I patrolled the city, keeping a close eye out for any signs of trouble. So far, things were quiet, not even so much as a purse snatching to thwart. However, I knew that wasn’t going to last. I’d been doing this whole hero thing for 6 months now, things never remain tranquil for long. Sure enough as I swung from rooftop to rooftop, I received a call from my ever so helpful assistant, Clyde. One thing I was extremely grateful for was his survival of the catastrophic event, he was my best friend and was like a third brother to me. It was always a joy to hear his voice.   
  
“Ace? Ace, are you there?” He asked. “Can you hear me?”   
  
“I can hear you loud & clear, Jack, over” I replied, anxious to know what crime he was reporting this time. Although I was hoping that whatever was going on wasn’t too crazy, I knew I shouldn’t hold my breath hoping for that. “What’s going on?”   
  
“We’ve got a robbery in progress over at Star Labs,” Clyde reported. “Apparently, the thieves are after some high tech anti-gravity modules. Police are heading to the scene, but it might help to give them a hand by apprehending the suspects beforehand. Also, keep in mind, this technology could be used for destructive purposes so you might want to head over there, pronto.”   
  
“I’m on it” I said. “Heading that way now, thanks for the heads up!”   
  


“Don’t mention it” Clyde replied as I webbed up and set out for Star Labs.   
  
It didn’t take me too long to make it to the laboratory in question. Upon arriving, I found six thugs carrying what looked like a heavy crate over to a black van. If I were a gambling man, I’d guess that the crate contained those modules that Clyde was talking about. What these guys wanted with them, I had no idea, but I wasn’t going to waste time finding out. I had a job to do. I immediately sprang into action, leaping from my hiding place and kicking one of the thugs in the head, knocking him out.

“It’s a bit past your bedtime,” I quipped as the remaining thugs dropped the crate and turned their attention to me. “What are you boys doing up so late?”

“It’s the Spider, get him!” One thug yelled before he and his friends pulled out their guns and opened fire on me.

“Ahem, that’s the Spider- _ Ace _ to you,” I sarcastically corrected them as I dodged their gunfire with ease.

I leapt behind one of the robbers, used my web to snatch the gun out of his hands and dropped him with an uppercut. I took care to move his body out of the way so that he wouldn’t be shot by his partners before moving to deal with the rest of his buddies. One thug was dual wielding pistols so I dealt with him by clogging the barrel of his guns with my web. That left only 3, all of whom were firing at me like crazy, destroying all kinds of computers and machines in the process. I felt a bit of remorse for their destruction as the scientists who worked here no doubt must’ve spent hours working on them, only for their progress to be suddenly erased, all because I couldn’t take out six hooligans fast enough. I pushed that thought out of my mind as I dodged their gunfire until they ran out of ammo. 

“Don’t you hate it when that happens?” I taunted before drop kicking one of the men in the chest. His partners tried picking up the crate and loading it into the van, but I put a halt to their efforts by destroying the crate, sending what looked like hundreds of anti-gravity modules scattering across the floor.

“Crap! How are we supposed to get all this junk now?” One of them asked.

“Just grab as many of them as you can and hope the boss is satisfied!” His partner replied, the two of them scrambling to pick up as many devices as they could.

“If I were you, I’d be hoping for a light sentence” I taunted them before feeling a large object hitting me on the back of the head, knocking me senseless.

“Looks like “Spider-Ace” just got squashed,” The third thug said, stepping over my half unconscious body and getting into the van. “How many of these things did you grab?”

“We got enough!” His accomplice yelled as he climbed into the driver’s seat while the second one got in on the passengers side. “Quick, get in before the cops get here!”

The criminals loaded into their van and sped off, leaving their unconscious partners behind as I slowly regained my bearings and got back up. Apparently, the third thug had thrown a barrel at me, which explained how it nearly knocked me out. It was amazing that I didn’t have a concussion or a fractured skull from the hit I had taken. In the distance, I could hear police sirens approaching, which I took as my cue to skedaddle. Fortunately, I had managed to keep sight of the robbers’ vehicle so following them back to their boss shouldn’t be too difficult. My head was still throbbing from the blow I took as I began my pursuit before receiving another call from Clyde.

“Ace! Ace! You alright man?” Clyde asked me. “You went quiet for a while so I started to worry.”

“I’m alright, ugh” I groaned, clutching my head while I swung from building to building, making sure I kept my eye on the thieves’ van. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Jack, but could you try not to be so loud? One of the guys threw a barrel at my head like he was freaking Donkey Kong or something. You’d think my Spidey sense would’ve given me a heads up so I could dodge, but I guess not”

“So I take it you lost the thieves?” Clyde asked me, speaking softer.

“No way, it’ll take more than some barrel to keep me down and out” I replied. “I’m following them to their boss as we speak; just making sure I keep my distance so I don’t alert them.”

“Hold on a minute, Boss?” Clyde responded.

“Well yeah,” I answered. “Between you & me, these guys share two collective brain cells. There’s no way that they could’ve come up with a scheme like this. They likely don’t even know what an anti-gravity module is. Someone has to be pulling the strings here.”

“Who do you think that someone is?” Clyde asked.

“I’m about to find out soon enough,” I said, following the van as it made its way to the slums. It soon afterwards reached its destination, which looked like it was an old electronics store. Climbing onto the roof, I sneaked inside through a ventilation duct. That allowed me a front row seat to listen in as the thieves met up with their “boss”. I couldn’t see who the boss was from where I was hiding, but I could hear them talking loud and clear.

“So, I take it you got the product I requested?” The Boss questioned them. Their voice sounded awfully familiar and I’d soon find out why.

“W-Well, Boss, w-w-we didn’t get the entire shipment like you asked, but we did bring you back this…” The first goon said as he and the other two nervously presented the boss with a total of 6 modules. There was a moment of silence before the mysterious boss snatched the modules from their hands and tossed them aside like they were yesterday’s trash.

“Useless!” The Boss exclaimed. “I gave you simpletons one simple task and you bring me this? What am I supposed to do with these? I’d compare you to Neanderthals, but scientific studies show that neanderthals were actually sufficiently intelligent, the same of which cannot be said of you. I should’ve suspected that you cretins had failed me when you arrived missing 3 of your fellow imbeciles!”

“It wasn’t our fault!” The second guy spoke up, trying to defend himself. “It’s that accursed Spider-Ace who is to blame! He ruined everything, we were lucky to escape with what we did!”

“Spider-Ace?” The Boss inquired, at which point I finally recognized their voice.

“Yeah, but don’t worry about that kid, I knocked him out with a barrel,” The third guy gloated. “He’s probably waking up in a police cell as we speak” Pfft, as if I’d let a lowlife like him get the best of me.

The boss sighs before saying “I’m going to ask you one very important question and I want you to answer truthfully… were you idiots followed on your way over here?”

“Not a chance” The third guy answers. “We didn't spot a single squad car or pesky wannabe superhero during our trip here.”

Lisa sighs and says “Yep, you were definitely followed. Come on out, brother!”

Popping from my hiding place, I couldn’t help but make a wisecrack. “Wow Lisa, you sure do know how to kill the mood. I was planning to make a whole dynamic entrance and everything, but you just had to ruin it didn’t you?” With a smirk, I took a better look around the joint. Yep, we were definitely in an electronics store. “So, what’s this? Your chess club gathering?”

“You made a mistake coming here, Spider” The first goon said, he and his partners pulling out their weapons and aiming them at me. “Now you’ve given us a chance to make up for earlier”

“Now, now, young man, didn’t your mother ever teach you that it was rude to point?” I taunted, reminding them that their guns were empty before asking Lisa. “Seriously, Lis, where do you find these guys?”

Lisa groaned and proclaimed “I’m surrounded by idiots” before pulling out a remote and pressing the big red button in the center. Almost immediately, every electronic device in the store from PCs to laptops to cell phones to tablets started merging together to form bulky looking killbots, complete with machine guns for arms and computer screens for faces. When it was all said and done, I found myself staring at 8 homicidal androids that wanted to turn me into Swiss cheese. 

“Uh oh,” I uttered before leaping behind a shelf to avoid the resulting gunfire. “Okay, outnumbered 8 to 1, nothing I haven’t faced before.”

“Boss, try to control these things!” One of the goons yelled as the trio tried ducking the hail of bullets. “You’re going to end up shooting one of us if you’re not careful!”

“And nothing of value would be lost” Lisa said, callously disregarding her henchmen’s lives as she sent her killbots after me. 

I spotted an opening in the form of a patch of loose ceiling right above two of the killbots’ heads. Acting quickly, I shot two webs at that particular spot before pulling on them harshly, using my super strength to bring a portion of the roof crashing down on top of the two cybernetic attackers, crushing them and giving me a bit more room to breathe. Three more of the androids were advancing towards me so I didn’t have much time to think, I had to rely on my instincts. I tried repeating my trick from the incident at Star Labs, using my web to clog the machine guns, but was distracted when one of Lisa’s henchmen suddenly came flying at me. I barely managed to catch the man in time, but in doing so, I lost my opportunity to strike.

I had completely forgotten about Lisa’s telekinesis and was lucky that it hadn’t cost me. What  _ would _ cost me however, was my mercy as the goon I’d saved from certain death repaid me by trying to hit me in the head with his gun. Fortunately, I dodged his attack but that didn’t stop him from trying to kick me in the face. I rolled out of the way of his kick and was just barely quick enough fire a web shot at an Android that was trying to blast me, managing to redirect its gun so that it opened fire on itself, destroying it in a shower of sparks.

“Might wanna work on how you program your machines’ A.I., Lis, these walking toasters don’t seem too bright” I said, not being able to resist making another snarky remark, much to my detriment. Lisa’s goon was still trying to attack me, forcing me to dodge his every punch. “Okay, you are starting to get annoying”

At the very least, I didn’t have to contend with his two buddies as they were busy cowering in the corner. I ducked another punch from the henchman and swept his leg out from underneath him, sending him toppling to the ground. As he went down, the crook grabbed me and tried pulling me down with him, which brought us both into the line of fire of two manic robots. Thanks to my super reflexes, I was able to jump out of the way… just not as fast as I needed to. I hissed in pain as I felt a sharp, burning sensation spread throughout my left shoulder. The idiot henchman got off far worse than I did, being shredded by machine gun fire. Still, having an injured arm would slow my down substantially, putting me in a bit of a predicament.

“If only you could understand what I’m trying to accomplish” I heard Lisa say as I hid behind another shelf. “I’m on the verge of discovering a cure to the virus, why are you trying to stop me?”

“Oh, I dunno, might have something to do with the fact that your “cure” involves modifying it so that anyone injected with it becomes slaves to your will,” I pointed out, looking for a way out as her androids continued approaching me.

“A small price to pay for salvation,” Lisa replied.

“So tell me, what about you ruling Royal Woods sounds like salvation?” I asked her, having a hard time believing that this mad scientist was my sister.

“Please, the people in this town would flourish under my leadership,” She answered back. “Also, do you really think my ambitions stop at just Royal Woods?” She smirked and said “With an adequate sample, perhaps I could release the virus into other cities and then save them with my cure. They’d practically begging to have me as their leader until I was the head of the entire United States and from there, the world itself!”

“Okay, I give you credit for not breaking into a cheesy stereotypical evil laugh, but are you listening to yourself?” I asked. “Not to mention, hello! You’re only 5 years old!”

“Age is nothing but a number” She replied. “It’s essentially meaningless, especially to someone of my intellect. You know, it’s not too late to ally with me, Lincoln. You could benefit from partnering with me, you know?”

“And help you poison innocent people in your pursuit for power? Not a chance” I answered, using my legs to kick the shelf onto the three androids that were approaching me, taking them out of commission as well. I quickly took refuge behind yet another shelf as the final two androids marched towards me.

“Just so you know, I take no joy in ending you, Lincoln” Lisa announced. “You’re my biological brother and we grew up in the same home so there’s plenty of sentimentality involved. Nevertheless, you serve as a hindrance to my plans and must be dealt with accordingly. Goodbye Lincoln.”

The shelf I was hiding behind started to shake. She was going to use her telekinesis to crush me to death. I couldn’t leap out from my hiding place as the second I did so, I’d be ripped to shreds by gunfire and that wasn’t even taking into consideration my injured arm. This wasn’t looking good for me. Just when it seemed that my fate was all but sealed, I heard the familiar cry of “Shazam!”, followed by a bolt of lightning striking right in front of me.

“Leave it to Stincoln to need his big sister to bail him out of trouble,” Lynn said as she appeared between me and the two remaining killbots, arms folded triumphantly.

“Aww man, that’s the kind of dynamic entrance I wanted to make” I lamented.

“Typical, I save your life and you’re more concerned about looking cool,” Lynn said.

“Oh please, I could’ve handled the situation,” I told her. “I was just lulling them into a false sense of security before I could strike”

“Oh really, and how did you plan on doing that?” Lynn asked with a teasing smirk, not even remotely phased by the hundreds of bullets being fired at her by Lisa’s machines.

“I have super strength too, you know,” I reminded her. “All I had to do was pick up this shelf and crush these buckets of bolts beneath it!” I wasn’t  _ completely  _ lying as that was my plan, but with my injury, it would’ve been rather difficult, if not impossible to pull off with just one arm.

“Sure, that’s all you had to do,” Lynn said, keeping that smirk on her face before she finally got fed up with the androids shooting her. “Okay, do you guys mind buzzing off!” With a single swift movement and one punch, she reduced the two machines to a pile of nuts and bolts. “Invulnerable to damage, remember?”

With her mechas destroyed, Lisa only had her two remaining henchman to turn to. “What do I pay you imbeciles for!? Get them!”

“Are you crazy? You want us to take on Lynn Marvel and Spider-Ace with our bare hands?” One goon replied with his partner adding. “ _ She _ just got shot a thousand times and didn’t even so much as flinch while destroying two of your creations with a single punch… and  _ he _ took out six of your robots with ease! What the heck do you think we’re going to do against them!?”

“So, I take it you’re refusing my orders?” Lisa questioned them. They nodded and Lisa responded with a deadpan “Very well”. There was a sickening crunch and the two thugs dropped dead in an instant, their heads twisted in a sickening angle.

“Did you just kill your own men?” I asked, in disbelief. I was trying to make it out of this patrol with a casualty count of zero, but clearly I failed big time in that regard. 

“If you think about it, I’m doing the two of you a favor,” Lisa said. “Dead men tell no tales, meaning your secret identities are safe. Not that it matters in the long run.”

“Do you really think that you can take me on?” Lynn questioned her. “Now listen, Lis, I don’t wanna have to fight you, but if it comes down to it, I will”

“Maybe we don’t have to fight,” Lisa said with a smirk. “After all, I be privy to some information you want to know,”

“What are you talking about?” Lynn asked, her curiosity piqued.

“You’re still searching for your boyfriend, aren’t you?” Lisa asked. “Six months and he’s still missing. Surely, you’re willing to do anything for a lead or something regarding his whereabouts.”

“Go on” Lynn said.

“All I’m asking for in return is that you partner with me,” Lisa told her. “I’ll give you all the answers you seek and then some”

“Don’t listen to her!” I advised Lynn. “She’s just trying to manipulate you!”

“Quiet,” Lynn told me, turning to Lisa and asking “What all do you know?”

“Hold on a minute,” Lisa said. “Such information doesn’t come free. If you want to know where your beloved Christopher is, you’ll have to do something for me.”

“Something like what?” Lynn asked, she & I both having a bad feeling in our gut.

“It’s quite simple, really” Lisa said. “All I want you to do is take care of our dearest brother and save me the heartache of having to do it myself”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Lynn asked.

“Lynn…” I said, unsure if she would actually go through with it or not. Chris meant the world to her and she’d do anything to find him.

“Dearest sister, you of all people should know just how much I  _ detest _ lying,” Lisa answered. “I can assure you, you have my word that I’ll tell you what you want to know”

After a moment of hesitation, Lynn began conjuring electricity. She turned her head towards me and aimed her palm at me.

“Lynn, you can’t be serious, can you!?” I asked, backing up. Lynn didn’t utter a word and continued charging electricity. As fast as my reflexes were, there was no way I could dodge a bolt of lightning. “LYNN!?”

At the last second, Lynn turned and fired her bolt at Lisa, who threw up a psychic barrier at the last second. Not that she needed to, as Lynn deliberately aimed above her head.

“You must be out of your mind if you think I’d kill my own family,” Lynn states, the disgust in her voice easy to hear. “I honestly can’t believe that you’re my sister, you’ve got to be a clone or a doppelgänger or something.”

“You just made a big mistake,” Lisa said. “You should’ve worked with me, now I have no choice but to destroy you”

“Oh yeah, and how are you going to do that?” Lynn asked. “Your psychic powers can’t match up to mine”

“Really?” Lisa replied. “Do you think I came unprepared. I’m all too aware that saying… darn, what was it? Shazing? Shablam? Shia Kazing? Shehulk? Zamboni…”

Growing tired of this, Lynn yelled “For Christ’s sake, it’s “SHAZAM!”” and instantly reverted back to her normal self.

“That’s it,” Lisa said with a smile. “You’re just as easy to trick as ever”

“So what?” Lynn replied. “All I have to do is say it again and I’ll be back at full strength! Sha” Before she could finish her sentence, Lisa grabbed her with her psychokinesis and slammed her up against a wall. Lynn quickly got back up, but was picked up and smashed into the wall a second time. And then a third.

“Lynn! Hold on!” I shouted, springing into action, only to be caught by Lisa’s psychokinesis and slammed hard into the floor.

“There’ll be no more of that” Lisa stated confidently, holding Lynn & I in the air by our necks. “Time to deal with you interlopers!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow moving in the background. Lisa must’ve noticed too as she immediately panicked and dropped Lynn & I to the ground. She looked behind her, but found nothing and turned her attention back to us, telekinetically picking us up by our necks again. As she did so however, a figure emerged from the shadows and took a swing at her, knocking her to the ground. Lynn took advantage of the opportunity, shouting “SHAZAM” and powering back up. Lynn & I both recognized the figure right away, despite the fact his face was obscured by shadows, even before he started profusely apologizing to Lisa.

“Oh my DIO, I’m so sorry! I didn’t hurt you, did I? I know, I’m despicable for putting my hands on my little sister in such a loathsome manner! I”

“Lio! You don’t have to apologize!” Lynn & I both said, with Lynn pointing out “Our beloved sister was just trying to kill me & Lincoln!”

That prompted me to ask my twin brother “What took you so long, man? You don’t think you could’ve gotten here sooner?”

“Oh, actually, I’ve been here the whole time” Lio replies. “You see, I arrived at Star Labs shortly after you and decided to hitch a ride with the thieves on their way back to the boss.”

“If you’ve been here the whole time, why didn’t you lend us a hand when we were fighting Lisa’s mechas?” Lynn asked him with a hint of anger.

“Are you crazy!?” He replied. “Unlike you two, I don’t have super strength, reflexes, or immunity to bullets! My powers consist solely of traveling through/disguising myself with shadows and healing people which, let me remind you, I can’t use on myself! Speaking of healing however…”

Lio gently grabbed my left arm and within a matter of seconds, the pain dissipated, fading away entirely. I flexed my muscles, making sure my arm still worked right. “Thanks, bro”

“No problem” He said before we heard Lisa getting up.

“You imbeciles are way too stupid to know you’re getting yourselves into by going against me,” Lisa said, venom in her voice. “You’ll regret this decision, I’ll make your lives completely miserable.”

“You’re about a year too late for that,” Lio snarked, face still hidden by shadows. 

“This isn’t the end of things,” Lisa proclaimed, pressing a few buttons on her wristwatch. “At the risk of sounding cliche, we shall meet again and next time, the outcome won’t be in your favor!” She disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Lynn, Lio, and myself standing there in confusion.

“Well, I can’t say I’m satisfied with how that confrontation ended,” I said.

“Do you… do you think she was telling the truth?” Lynn asked. “Do you think she actually might know where Chris is?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “She’s not one to fib liberally, but then again… how would she come across information regarding him?”

“Even if she does know where he is, I doubt she planned on telling you outright, even if you did kill Lincoln,” Lio said. “She likely would’ve had you continue doing tasks for her until you were no longer useful.”

“You’re probably right,” Lynn admitted.

“What is this world coming to?” Lio lamented. “We used to fight each other over the TV remote or who did what chore or who got which of Dad’s leftovers. Now… now we’re fighting to kill each other.” Out of all is us, he was the one hit hardest by the loss of our parents and our resulting split. It was easy to tell too. His voice just sounded so broken, like he was constantly on the verge of crying.

“Yeah…” Lynn said. “Things are really messed up, but at least I know that I still have you two… and Lucy… and Leni… and Lily of course” Lynn turned to me and asked “How is Lily doing by the way?”

“She’s doing great,” I answered. “Clyde’s dads are taking great care of her. Still no sign of any powers manifesting though.”

“That’s strange,” Lynn said. “She caught the virus just like all of us, right?” Lio & I nodded. “Maybe it’s because she’s just too young right now, but it’s still odd her powers haven’t manifested yet.”

“Perhaps that’s a good thing,” Lio said, the shadows starting to cover his entire body, which was a sign he was about to leave. “If it keeps her out of this life, I’m all for it.”

“So where are you headed?” I asked him.

“Heading back to the library,” Lio answered. “Hoping that I can find  _ something _ about this mysterious disease, or at least find out where it came from.”

“Good luck with your research,” Lynn told him.

“Thank you” He responded before disappearing completely into the shadows, leaving just me and Lynn.

“What do you plan on doing?” I asked Lynn.

“I need answers,” She replied. “I have to know what happened to Chris. I can’t stop until I find the truth.”

“Don’t you think that it’s somewhat possible that Christopher could be… well, you know” I started to ask, only to be cut off by a steely death glare.

“Don’t even joke like that,” Lynn said. “He’s out there somewhere, I just know it; and I’m not going to stop until I find him.”

With that, she took flight, leaving me alone. That’s when I received another call from Clyde.

“Things certainly got out of hand back there, wouldn’t you say?”

“Tell me about it,” I said, ready to swing back over to my hideout. “I’m used to my fair share of crazy nights, but this was way wilder than I imagined!”

“What do you think will happen from here on out?” Clyde asked me.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “One thing is for certain though: I have a feeling the insanity is just getting started.”

END ISSUE 1


	2. A Marvelous Lynnfiltration

What would you do if someone you loved suddenly went missing? If they just vanished without a trace one day? Not dead or kidnapped, just gone and nobody knew where they were. How far would you be willing to go to find them? Despite everyone telling you that they’re likely dead and that you should move on, would you keep looking or just give up hope? That’s the position I found myself in. Ever since that virus plagued our community, nothing has been the same. In short order, I lost my parents, my family, and then my boyfriend. A boyfriend who meant the world to me. In the wake of the epidemic, all I had were questions. Questions that I desperately needed the answers to. No matter what it took, I’d find the truth I was seeking out.

After that encounter with my sister, Lisa, I was left with a new sense of hope. The way she spoke implied that Chris was still alive and out there somewhere. Of course, that was assuming she was telling the truth. Either way, if I wanted answers, I was going to have to find them myself. Even if Lisa was telling the truth, after she tried manipulating me into killing Lincoln, there was no way I’d work with her. I couldn’t tell if it was the side effects of the virus or if her newfound power had gone to her head, but either way she had lost her mind. It was hard to believe that she used to be my tutor.

As the sun started to rise after what turned out to be an eventful night, I wondered where I should go from here. Before the call to action, I had been looking into certain rumors regarding the citizens who went had gone missing during the initial outbreak. The rumor going around was that the government had gathered up a few of the infected and taken them to a private facility to be experimented on so that they could find a cure for the disease. Personally, I found the rumor to be ridiculous. For a brief time, I wondered if the rumor was true and if maybe Chris had been one of the people they’d gathered up before dismissing that thought. Most of the people who had gone missing were homeless people, runaways, and those who’d be considered undesirables. All in all, people whose disappearance wouldn’t bat an eyelash to most folks. Secondly, I found out through his parents that Chris showed no signs of even being infected with the virus, meaning he didn’t fit in either category. It was highly unlikely he’d been taken away by some government conspiracy. 

Walking through town in my depowered state, I caught a glimpse of a newspaper, the headlining story reading “Twisted Joke, Another Body Found, Thought to be yet another victim of The Joker, who remains at large”. I let out a sigh upon reading the story and seeing that she had struck again. While all of my siblings & I survived the virus without any physical harm, a few of us came out of the ordeal with damaged mental states with one of us becoming completely guano insane. Hopefully, she’d be caught soon as in the short six months since what happened, she’d already killed so many people. My sister, Lucy, night have felt otherwise, but I was sick of the feeling of being surrounded by death. Royal Woods was dealing with enough issues as it is, they didn’t need something like this to keep them up at night. I pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the matter at hand. I was at square one with nary a clue about where to look next. Fortunately for me, I was about to stumble upon a lead through sheer chance. As I was walking down the street, I heard two teens talking to each other in an alleyway.

“Okay, I’m calling BS on that,” One kid, clad in a black hoodie said to the other. “There’s no way you’re not just saying this to mess with me.”

“I swear man, it’s the truth,” the second one said, wearing a white leather jacket. He sounded like he was genuinely distressed, as if he’d seen something not meant to be seen. He was frantic and clearly very nervous as his eyes were wide as dinner plates. “What they’re doing is actually insane!”

Deciding to get a better listen, I crept closer to the two and hid behind a dumpster in order to get a better listen.

“So you’re telling me that Paxton Industries is taking infected people from the hospital and freezing them like popsicles?” The first one said, sounding skeptical. “I don’t know man, this seems like something out of a comic book or movie or something.”

“Dude, you’ve gotta believe me!” His friend insisted. “I saw and heard it with my own eyes! There was this man, looked like he was on the verge of death! He was so desperate to live that he signed a waiver that allowed Paxton to do whatever they wanted as long as they cured him! Those rumors we’ve been hearing are true! I swear on my mother’s life I’m telling the truth!”

The first teen laughed and asked “Are you sure your fellow coworkers weren’t just playing a prank on you? I mean after all, you are the new intern.”

“Do you really think that I would lie about something like this!?” The second one asked, seemingly becoming more and more unhinged with each passing second.

“Okay, okay, let’s just say I believe you,” The first one said. “What would they possibly have to gain from doing this?”

“I don’t know, but we’ve got to tell everyone about this!” His friend insisted.

I myself was reluctant to believe the kid’s story… until I heard the sound of a gun cocking and a deep, gruff voice say “I’m afraid I can’t let you two gentlemen do that”

I looked up and saw two business executives approaching from the other side of the alley. They didn’t seem to notice me as their attention was squarely on the two teenagers. Each of the men held a pistol in their hands and had murderous intent in their eyes. The two teens backed away slowly, presumably looking for a way out of this.

“I extend my deepest apologies, boys” One of them said, oddly enough sounding genuinely polite. “But no one can be allowed to know of our operations”

“Okay, let’s say I believe you now,” The first teen said to his friend. “Do you have any idea of how we’re going to get out of this?”

“None whatsoever” said the second as the hit men pointed their guns at them. 

At this point, I’d seen and heard enough. Wasting not even a single second more, I shouted “Shazam!” And transformed into my more powerful alter ego. The bolt of lightning got the hit men’s attention, giving me time to jump in between them and the two teens. “You two might want to get out of here, I’ll deal with these nerds” I told them.

“Don’t have to tell us twice!” They said, making a run for it. The hitmen raised their weapons and tried shooting them, but I was more than quick enough to catch their bullets in my hand.

“Hey, eyes on me,” I scolded them. “Right now, I’m the only one you should be concerned with.”

“Well, considering you likely heard everything those two dunderheads were talking about, you’re not exactly wrong,” The hitman with a gruff voice said, sounding the exact opposite of his polite partner. “Dealing with you shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.” With that said, the two hitmen opened fire and I couldn’t help but chuckle at their useless gesture. 

“Why is it that makes every criminal, thug, and lowlife immediately try shooting me when they see me?” I asked rhetorically as their bullets bounced off me. “You’d think someone would spread the message to their buddies that I’m bulletproof.”

“Let’s see how you fare against grenades then!” The gruff voiced hitman said, tossing two grenades at me, which is easily caught in my hands. Just to show off, I deliberately detonated the explosives myself and tanked the explosion. The look on the hit men’s faces was priceless as they swiftly changed their tone from bravado to astonishment. Their shock didn’t last long however and in what I can only assume to be a move of desperation, pointed their pistols right at my face.

“Again with the pea-shooters? You guys really don’t learn, do you?” I teased them, snatching their guns away from them and crushing them in my hand. “Now why don’t you boys take a little nap?” I said as I grabbed their heads and bashed them together, knocking them out cold. I took the time to tie them up before checking to make sure they didn’t have any more weapons. In the process, I found a business card relating to Paxton Industries. Needless to say, I now fully believed that kid’s story. Next on my agenda was to head over to their headquarters and do a little private investigating. Maybe if I was lucky, I’d catch a break and find what I was looking for.

Before I set off to break into a multi-billion dollar company’s main building of operations, I had to do some research on them. From what I gathered, it seemed this company was involved in just about every activity under the sun, both legal and illegal. Oil drilling, agriculture, product manufacturing, medical research to name a few. The company’s owner/CEO, Derek Paxton, was rumored to have dealings in arms trafficking, extortion, racketeering, and embezzlement. Of course, none of those allegations could actually be proven, but even with all that aside, this was still one shady organization. Focusing on their ventures in medical research, it appeared that they were experimenting with cryogenic freezing for the purpose of preserving life, mostly using small rodents and mammals as test subjects. Now they had decided to expand their experiments to include the use of humans. With all this information at my disposal, I didn’t feel the slightest bit bad about planning to break into their facilities.

I waited until about noon to make my move. The headquarters was heavily guarded so getting inside would definitely be a challenge. I couldn’t just use my powers to blitz my way inside; for this mission I wanted to be as stealthy as possible. Getting out undetected would definitely prove difficult, but the real test came in how would I get  _ in  _ undetected? That’s when it hit me. Through the use of my ability to control electricity, I could render myself invisible to the human eye. Looks like Lisa’s science lessons were starting to pay off.

Using my electrokinetic invisibility, I simply walked through the front door without issue. Once I made it past the front desk, it was simply a matter of finding out where they kept the human popsicles. If action movies had taught me anything, it was that the big bad corrupt corporate executives always kept their dirty secrets on the basement floor. I double checked to make sure that nobody was watching before catching an elevator. Next stop: bottom floor. 

As the elevator descended, I became lost in thought once again. The encounter with the hitmen raised two stinging questions for me. Was it possible that Chris had been mistaken for one of the infected and was kidnapped & frozen by Paxton? Had he found out about what they’d been doing and then silenced? No, that couldn’t have been what happened. Call it intuition, but I just  _ knew _ that he wasn’t dead. Whatever the case was, I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get the answers I was seeking today. That wasn’t going to stop me from looking however. Even if I didn’t find Chris here, I could still take the opportunity to gather evidence on this company’s shady dealings.

The elevator came to a halt and I took a quick look around upon stepping out. The basement was brightly lit and consisted of many long halls and corridors. With the exception of the bathroom, every room was only accessible through the use of a keycard. Honestly, I expected something like this, but the keycard issue wasn’t even my main concern. My biggest problem was finding out which room was the room they kept the frozen patients stored in. There were dozens of rooms on this floor alone, I didn’t have time to look through every single room one by one. Fortunately, it wouldn’t take me too long to find the cryogenic freezing chamber. How did I pull this off, you ask? Well, it might have had something to do with the large black doors that had four armed guards standing in front of them. Not exactly keeping anything secret if you keep a bunch of armed guards standing outside the door.

Making things even better was the fact that each guard had their own keycard around their necks which took care of my second problem. I was still invisible at this point and since I was generating electricity, all I had to do to knock out the guards was give them a simple tap on the shoulder. After taking care of them, I took a keycard from one guard, scanned it and walked through the doors. Right away, the temperature dropped and I couldn’t help but involuntarily shiver. I was definitely in the right place. The chamber looked like one large laboratory/doctor’s office, being occupied by scientists in white lab coats and a few wearing surgical masks. They weren’t the people I was looking for. I knew I had to venture deeper into the lab if I wanted to find where they kept the patients.

I casually strolled past scientists and doctors alike, all of them talking about how close they were to a major breakthrough when it came to curing the virus. Their research involved more than just freezing people alive. They were actually developing vaccines and other forms of treatment and testing them on patients, while they were still fully conscious. Not only that, but they had apparently been doing this for weeks. Yet, these scumbags had the nerve to be proud of themselves for what they were doing. I could barely contain the disgust I felt towards each and every one of them. No matter how good their goals were, the fact that they could so easily throw away their morals to accomplish them was despicable. There had to be a better way of combating the virus than this. 

I kept my contempt bottled up as I descended further into the lab, the temperature growing colder and colder as I did, letting me know I was on the right track. The further along I went, the more I could’ve sworn I heard moans of agony. I didn’t know if they were coming from live test subjects or if I was just hearing things, but it was disturbing all the same. I swear, if it was the last thing I did, I was going to expose this company for all of its dirty deeds. I put that thought aside as I finally found the real freezing chamber, the room where they stored all their test subjects. Unlike the door I went through to get into the lab in the first place, this one was strangely unprotected, with not a single guard in sight. There wasn’t even so much as a keycard lock to keep people from getting inside. I guess they figured that if you made it this far, you’d already been given the proper clearance. 

Opening the door, I was instantly taken aback by a chilling breeze of cold air. I shivered for just a moment before stepping inside and finding just what I was looking for. Lined up in rows all throughout the room were hundreds of pods, each of them containing a person inside. It wasn’t as horrifying as I expected it to be as despite being frozen solid, each and every patient looked like they were in a peaceful slumber. I debated whether or not I should try breaking them out. On the one hand, I could save them from being subjected to experimentation. On the other hand, I had no idea what I was doing or how to even open the pods to begin with and my efforts to free them could end up accidentally killing them.

Ultimately, I made the decision to just leave them as they were for now. I made a promise to myself that I’d come back for them later, maybe with some help from my family. In the meantime, it didn’t hurt to try getting a good look at these people’s faces, maybe find out who their families were so I could tell them what happened to their loved ones. I mean, after all, that was one of the reasons I came here in the first place. I was forced to become visible again if I wanted to look through the pods in order to prevent myself from accidentally shorting them out with my electricity. Afterwards, I began looking through each and every pod, getting a good look at the faces of everyone inside them. Some of them I recognized as being the people who’d gone missing after the initial outbreak. Others I recognized as being runaway teenagers, something that made me sick to my stomach. Some of these teens were close to my age, yet they were being primed like cattle to be experimented on. I had a strong feeling that not all of these guys were infected either. 

So far, my search for Chris had turned up fruitless. Even though I still had no idea where he was, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. At least now I knew he wasn’t being held here against his will, being prepped to become some guinea pig.

I continued looking through the pods when I came face to face with someone I wasn’t expecting to see. A man who looked to be in his late fifties, early sixties with thinning white hair and mustache, dressed in a pinstripe suit. Unlike all the other ones, he did not look like he was in a peaceful slumber. Au contraire, his mouth was agape and his face frozen in an expression of sheer terror. Upon closer look, I recognized this man as Derek Paxton, the CEO who I had mentioned earlier. Needless to say, I was incredibly confused by this. Was he one of the infected? If not, why has he been frozen? Most importantly, if  _ he _ wasn’t the one pulling the strings behind this operation, then who was?

All my questions would soon be answered as I heard the doors slide open behind me. I quickly ran into a far corner of the room and hid behind one of the pods, peeking my head out from around the corner so I could see who was coming. Much to my confusion, it was Lisa who was entering the room, accompanied by a nerdy looking, bespectacled man. Lisa wore a very concerned and angry look on her face as if her patience was being tested.

“Wilbur, are you absolutely sure that there hasn’t been a breach in security?” Lisa asked the man with glasses.

“I’m certain of it,” Wilbur replied. “If someone had managed to make it through, I’d be the first to know.”

“Then how do you explain the four unconscious guards who were lying down on the job outside the door to this facility?” Lisa questioned him. “I find it hard to believe that all of them just randomly decided to take a nap at the same time.”

“Trust me, no one is capable of making it down here without being caught,” Wilbur said, a remark that made me have to clamp my mouth shut to keep from laughing.

“For your sake, I hope you’re correct,” Lisa told him. “We can ill afford for someone to find out about our deal, especially concerning what happened to your father.”

“Do you think I want to be found out?” Wilbur asked in response as he & Lisa inspected every corner of the room. “I’ve been living in the shadow of that abusive, contemptible blowhard for years. When you came along and offered to take care of him, I jumped at the chance to replace him. I have just as much to lose as you do!”

“Not exactly, but if that’s what you want to believe, then okay,” Lisa replied. “Just don’t forget who’s really pulling the strings around here.”

“As long as it looks like I’m in charge, you can do whatever you please,” Wilbur told her, coming very close to my hiding spot. It was a good thing I had reverted back to using my electrokinetic invisibility ability otherwise, I might have been caught then and there.

“Well, it appears that there’s nobody here,” Lisa said. “Maybe it was just a false alarm after all. Come on, let’s head back upstairs so that we can discuss business.” She & Wilbur left the room shortly after that, leaving me free to continue my search.

Again, I dropped the use of invisibility so that I wouldn’t damage the pods and resumed what I had been doing before. It took my a little bit to comprehend what I had just seen and heard. In addition to setting up the theft at Star Labs the other night, Lisa had apparently weaseled her way into Paxton Industries and frozen & replaced the CEO. How she had managed to do that was a mystery to me. An even bigger mystery was how long had she been in charge? Had she been the one giving out orders to carry out these kidnappings? Was this the true motive behind all those disappearances, to provide Lisa with experimental fodder? Sure, Lisa always had a tendency to use her family as guinea pigs, but she never used them in experiments like this and her science was always on the ethical side of things. After her monologue last night, I knew she had ambitions of world domination, but how low was she willing to stoop to achieve those goals?

I was interrupted from my thoughts when I heard an “Ahem” and felt the room grow even  _ colder _ . Turning around, I saw my older sister, Luna, standing in the doorway. Just when I thought this day couldn’t get anymore confusing. 

“Luna? What are  _ you _ doing here?” I asked, not knowing whether I should be preparing for a fight or not, but keeping a defensive stance just in case.

“You could say we’re both here for similar reasons, sis” Luna said, casually crafting an icicle in her hands. “We’re both here for the vested interests of our special someone. The difference is that I  _ know  _ where my someone is while you’re still hopelessly searching for yours.” She suddenly threw the icicle at my head, which I easily caught in my hand; looks like we were fighting. “You know, sis, if you were really so determined to find Chris, you should’ve agreed to work with Lisa.”

“Don’t tell me that you’ve sided with her,” I said. “Do you have any idea what she’s doing?”

“She’s trying to find a cure for the disease that turned us into a family of freaks!” Luna shouted. “Besides, even if I do disagree with her ethics, I have no choice but to help her”

I was curious as to what she meant by that until she walked over to another pod that I had failed to notice. Looking closely, I could see that the pod contained Luna’s girlfriend, Sam.

“Listen, Luna, you don’t have to do this,” I tried to persuade her. “Lisa is just using you. Even if she does find a cure, do you think Sam would approve of the means used to help her. Do you think that she’d approve of the things you did?”

“Shut up!” Luna shouted, sending hundreds of razor sharp shards of ice at me. “You don’t know anything!”

“Luna, think long and hard about this,” I warned her. “Do you really think you can go toe to toe with me?”

“I don’t think, I  _ know _ I can beat you” Luna said before launching into an attack.

She went for a punch, but I ducked and countered with a kick to the face. She recovered quickly and grabbed me by my leg before spiking me into the ground. Being as resilient as I was, I wasn’t going down so easily and rolled out of the way as Luna tried pouncing on me. As I took a step back, Luna created a patch of ice on the floor, causing me to slip and fall on my backside. Afterwards, she constructed a giant fist made out of ice and tried to flatten me. Thanks to my superhuman durability, I came out without even a scratch on me. I charged a lightning bolt, only to stop myself before I could fire it. The last thing I wanted to do was damage one of these pods and kill somebody. My hesitation almost cost me as Luna launched four more icicles at my head. 

I could tell that she was holding back. If Luna was truly intent on killing me, she could’ve summoned icicles from the ground in an attempt to skewer me. That, or use and freeze the water in my body to tear me to shreds. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t trying however. As the battle went on, I noticed the temperature continued to drop. Either she was trying to freeze me to death or make it harder for me to breathe in order to disorient me. In either case, I had to get her out of the pod chamber so that we wouldn’t cause too much damage. To accomplish that, I flew right over to her and delivered and uppercut that sent her flying through the ceiling and up to the ground floor.

The secretary at the front desk screamed and ran for cover as I went to check on Luna. For my troubles, I was knocked back by a blast of ice. I got back to my feet and saw Luna standing on the other side of the lobby. I showed no fear as I charged towards Luna. I paid for my overzealous attack as in less than a split second, Luna crafted a large scythe made of ice and slashed me across the chest. I hissed in pain, but quickly recovered. I sidestepped another slash from Luna and blocked another with my forearm. I kicked Luna in her knee, sending her tumbling to the ground. Luna was agile however and rolled through, slashing my hand with her scythe when I reached out at her. I jumped back and instinctively shot a lightning bolt at Luna. Luna threw up an ice shield to protect herself, but was still knocked back when the lightning shattered her shield. That must’ve angered her because after recovering, the first thing Luna did was charge me at full speed. With adrenaline pumping through my veins, I charged towards her as well. 

Once she was close enough, Luna decided to discard her scythe and attack me with a stiff punch to the face. After shaking my head clear, I returned the favor with a punch of my own. Strangely, Luna didn’t even flinch as my fist collided with her face and in fact, she even smirked at me. I found out why that was when I felt a chill run up my arm and looked down to see my fist frozen in a block of ice. That flash freezing technique of hers was a real pain. Thanks to it, I couldn’t physically touch her without getting frozen. I tried pulling away, but Luna grabbed my free arm and started freezing it too. Soon I was completely encased in a crystal of solid ice. I tried to break free with brute strength, but every time I did, she applied a thicker layer of ice. I was fortunate that there was a pocket of fresh air for me to breathe, but I had to figure a way out of this and fast. Thinking quickly, I powered down into my normal form before quickly shouting “SHAZAM!”, the resulting lightning bolt blasting the ice crystal into pieces, setting me free and sending Luna flying.

Luna crashed hard into the wall with a thud and I was fully prepared to continue the fight. Unfortunately, I could hear sirens in the background as well as security guards coming to check out the scene. My mission of getting out undetected has been a complete failure and even if this company  _ was  _ carrying out underhanded procedures, I had no actual proof of their wrongdoing. Not wanting to go through the process of explaining to police and first responders why I had broken into one of the headquarters of the largest organization in America, I decided my best move was to get out of there as soon as possible. In the blink of an eye, I flew out the front door and took to the sky, just as Luna was starting to come to.

What a wild day this had been. My quest for the truth had led me to uncovering a horrific plot. If I could commend Lisa for one thing, it’s that she didn’t mess around when it came to her goals. Already she’d made a huge power move in her plans. I had to tell Lincoln, Lio, and the others about what was going on, about what Lisa was up to. We needed to come up with a way to stop her before it was too late. For the time being, my search for Chris could wait; there were bigger, more pressing issues at hand.

END ISSUE 2 


	3. Shock Absorber

Don’t give me that look, I know what you’re thinking. How could I participate in something so heinous? How could I aid someone with such a twisted goal? How could I sleep at night knowing what I was aiding in? I’ve heard those same questions so many times that I should start making a list of just how many times I’ve heard them. Allow me to ask you a question in return: How far would you go if it meant saving the life of someone you treasured? Especially if you consider that someone to be the second half of your soul? Love can make you do crazy things, things you thought you’d never do in a million years. The biggest mistake of my life was falling in love, although if you knew her personally, you couldn’t really blame me.

She was as beautiful as an autumn sunset, her spirit and personality was as free as the wind, and she was one of the kindest, gentlest souls I’d had the fortune of meeting. Heh, if she could hear me now, she’d probably tease me for being so cheesy. Her name was Sam Sharp and after an awkward confession on my part, we began dating. Everything was perfect and we both thought that we’d spend the rest of our lives with each other. Then, tragedy struck; while she had been spared during the initial outbreak of the virus, she wouldn’t be so lucky in the aftermath. After contracting the illness, her health rapidly declined and she had to be hospitalized. Doctors didn’t know if she was going to make it through or not. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her and I’d do literally anything to save her life. That’s when Lisa approached me with an offer. To you, it may seem like I made a deal with the devil, in reality I did what I had to do to save a life. With Sam’s consent, I agreed to freeze her over until Lisa could find a cure. I knew in advance that it might take weeks, months, or even years for a cure to be developed, but it was the only option I had.

I am not a villain. Anyone in my shoes would make the same choice I did. At least, that’s what I thought. My scuffle with Lynn had left me a bit bruised and sore. I stretched as I picked myself up off the ground. The little brat was long gone by the time I had full regained my senses. She was lucky that I held back throughout our fight, I could’ve defeated her without breaking a sweat if I wasn’t. For the life of me I couldn’t understand her. Just like me, she had been on the verge of losing someone she cared about and Lisa had offered her a solution. While I could understand her reluctance to kill one of our siblings, why hadn’t she at least entertained the idea of working for Lisa? Hmpf, if she knew the  _ true _ reason Chris had gone missing, she wouldn’t be so unwilling to play ball.

As police, firefighters, and EMTs arrived on the scene, I ventured back downstairs and into the chamber. Fortunately, our fight hadn’t damaged any of the pods, I knew Lisa would be livid if we’d accidentally killed one of our subjects. Patching the hole in the ceiling/floor was going to take some time, but for right now, I could simply seal the opening with a patch of ice. After resolving that problem, I made my way to the top floor to meet up with Lisa. I already knew she wasn’t going to be happy about that little intrusion, but I was hoping that I could calm her down. Sure enough, when I arrived at her office, Lisa was busy arguing with Wilbur, shouting at and berating him while the latter tried defending himself.

“I thought I told you to make absolutely sure no one had infiltrated the building!” Lisa yelled at him. “How could you be so incompetent as to let an intruder, who happened to be my sister no less, make it through into the freezing chamber!?”

“If I recall correctly, she made it past  _ you _ too!” Wilbur retorted. “We were in the room at the same time, how come you didn’t detect her presence?”

“Don’t try to deflect this back at me!” Lisa shouted. “I don’t think you’re understanding the big picture here: she knows about what we’re doing, which means she likely knows about your role in dispatching of your father! I don’t know how many times I have to remind you of this fact, but if I go down, you go down too!”

“Crap, you’re right!” Wilbur exclaimed, bearing the expression of a man who’d gone skydiving and realized a second too late that their parachute didn’t work. “What’re we going to do? I’m not fit for prison, they’ll mop up the floor with me!”

“Calm down you nervous ninny,” Lisa instructed him. “I doubt Marvel was smart enough to gather any evidence while she was in there, meaning it’s her word against ours. Even if she did, her evidence would be inadmissible in court. In fact, perhaps we could even have her charged with trespassing as well as breaking & entering. Imagine how bad it would look if one of Royal Woods’ darling superheroines were caught breaking the law over an obsession over her boyfriend’s fate. We could easily turn the public against her and paint her as a terrorist.”

“That’s- That’s brilliant!” Wilbur applauded her, while I watched them, both of them unaware I was standing in the doorway.

“Of course it’s brilliant, I came up with it!” Lisa sang her own praises, causing me to question if she’d always been this insufferable of a genius.

Finally, I made my presence known with an “Ahem,” getting their attention and causing their eyes to fall on me. 

“Ah, Luna, just in time,” Lisa said to me, turning to Wilbur and dismissing him. “You can leave now, this is a private conversation between my sister and me.”

As Wilbur left, closing the door behind him, I apologized to Lisa for failing to stop Lynn. “Sorry about slipping up down in the lab, Lis. I know I should’ve had her, but-”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Lisa said, confusing me. I thought that she’d be furious with me. “We shall deal with Lynn in dear time, right now we have more pressing matters at hand.”

“Such as?” I asked.

“Well, for starters, there’s a mad maniac running around kidnapping, torturing, and murdering people,” Lisa answered. “It would help our public image if we were to put a permanent end to her antics, if you catch my drift.”

“Whoa, hold on, I’m not liking where you’re going with this” I told her. “Like, I’m willing to round up our other siblings, but I draw the line at ‘eliminating’ them''

“What is it with all of you and your sentimentality?” Lisa scoffed. “I understand that she’s our sister, but she’s also a threat to public safety. Are you aware of how many people she’s killed during her spree of madness? We’re at a point where we can’t simply settle with capturing her. She has to be stopped by any means necessary. Believe me, I myself am not comfortable with this solution, but it is a necessary evil; it has to be done.”

“Listen, I am not killing any of my siblings,” I staunchly refused. “Again, I’m willing to capture her alive, but I’m not going any further than that.”

Lisa let out a sigh and said “I suppose there’s no convincing you otherwise. Very well, I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to.” She gazed out the window and added “Besides, I have more than enough resources that are capable of dealing with The Joker; just so long as you don’t interfere with the process, we’ll be okay.”   
  
“You won’t have to worry about me getting in the way,” I assured her. “I want no part in your little more sinister schemes.”

“Understandable,” Lisa said. “However, since you say you’re willing to capture more of our siblings, perhaps there’s another troublesome sister you can help me deal with.”

“And who would that be?” I asked. “Let me guess, it’s Raven, isn’t it? Or perhaps you want me to go after Plastic Girl? It wouldn’t take me too much effort to capture either of them.”   
  
“While I don’t doubt your claims, there’s another target I have in mind for this assignment,” Lisa said before explaining “A certain someone whose identity I’m sure you’ll quickly deduce, has been causing quite a ruckus in the woods. There have been reports of a shapeshifting creature capable of transforming into many different types of animals terrorizing and in some cases, attacking campers & hikers wandering through the forest. Now who do you know matches this description?”   
  
“Lana,” I answered quickly.    
  
“Or as she’s been dubbed by the media, Beast Girl,” Lisa said. “Normally, I’d brush her off as an afterthought, but her attacks are starting to cause panic. Taking into consideration her ability to communicate with animals, that may raise an even bigger problem in that she can command her furry friends to attack innocents. For the interest of the public, it would serve us well to capture Lana before she gets out of hand and someone ends up getting killed. Do you think you’re up for the task? Oh, and if you have any objections, think about this: would you prefer to safely apprehend your sister and bring her here where she can be monitored or would you like it if some vigilante mob of hunters set out to find Beast Girl and ended up killing her?”

I knew exactly what Lisa was doing. She was playing to my emotions and family bonds to manipulate me into accepting the job. Nevertheless, she was right. It was better that I be the one to capture her. Thus, I accepted, telling Lisa confidently “I’ll have her here in no less than six hours max”   
  
“I know you will, I have the utmost confidence in you,” Lisa said with a smirk. “At the very least, I know I can count on you more than the incompetent goons I have at my disposal.” She chuckled and sarcastically (at least I hoped it was sarcastic) suggested “Maybe you should take one of them along with you to use as live bait.”

“No need,” I told her. “Lana and I are just going to have a friendly sisterly talk and if talking doesn’t work… I’ll just have to domesticate her before I bring her to you. All I think I’ll really need is a knapsack to keep her contained.”

“Just in case, however, take this collar with you,” Lisa said, pulling out a shiny silver and blue metal collar. “This collar is specially designed to cancel out Lana’s powers, just on the off chance that she tries transforming in order to escape”

“Do you… do you have collars like these designed for all of us?” I asked, cautiously taking the collar from her.

“Only as a contingency,” She said nonchalantly. “You never know when they might be necessary.”

“If you say so,” I said before turning and walking out the door.   
  
As I left her office, I took my time to collect my thoughts. It worried me that Lisa had made power cancellation collars for all of her siblings, including me, even though I was working with her. Who else was on Lisa’s list? I already knew Lynn was on her list for sure, especially after she broke into her hideout. I wondered whether she’d want me to go after either Spider-Ace or Shade in the future. After all, she had mentioned being rather annoyed by their interference in the Star Labs heist. Was there anyone else on her kill list? It was bad enough that she was willing to kill one of us, but what was stopping her from deciding that we all had to go?   
  


I quickly pushed the thought out of my head. Whether I agreed with Lisa’s methods or not, I had a job to carry out. It had actually been a while since I had seen or heard anything about Lana. While most of my family either used their newfound abilities to be heroes or for their own personal gain, Lana was one of the few who kept a low profile. It’s not like she vanished into thin air or anything, more like she went off the grid and did everything in her power to stay under the radar. Still, finding her shouldn’t be much of a hassle.   
  
Even after all these years, it still took me some time to get used to going from the city to the forest. It was just such a jarring change in atmosphere that it caught me off guard. Luckily for me, I had my music and a pair of earphones to better help me adjust. I took them out as soon as I made it to where I was headed and began hiking along a trail. I needed to be all ears if I wanted to catch Lana as quickly as possible. With every step I took, I kept an ear out for any odd noises while keeping my eyes peeled for anything that looked out of the ordinary. I was observant of every single sound I heard from a twig snapping under my foot to leaves rustling in the wind. In the distance, I could hear the laughter and chattering of a group of carefree hikers. Something told me to keep an ear out for them as they might prove useful later.

Part of me was reluctant to believe that Lana was the perpetrator of all these animal attacks. While she could be aggressive sometimes and took part in our sibling fights, it was completely out of her character to attack innocent people. Then again, none of us were really the same after the virus. It changed us almost completely on both a physical and mental level. One needed to look no further than Lisa to see that. Once a promising child genius, she was now a power hungry egomaniac. Had Lana undergone a similar change in personality? Had her love of nature turned into an animalistic jungle girl? Or, even scarier, had this side of Lana always existed and her newfound power gave her the courage to fully express it?   
  
No, that couldn’t be the reason, I refused to accept that as an explanation! The virus was to blame for all of this, which only fueled my desire to find a cure for Sam. I could only hope that the virus didn’t change her personality after she was freed from its effects. Of course, if I wanted that remedy, it was imperative that I completed this task. No matter what the reason for Lana’s change in character, I was here to capture her and I wasn’t going to let anyone or anything stop me.   
  
The further along the trail I walked, the more oddities I noticed. I walked past several woodland critters such as rabbits, squirrels, and birds; that wasn’t the odd part. The odd part was that each and every animal I crossed seemed to have its eyes trained on me, as if they were watching my every move. They didn’t seem hostile or out to attack me, at least not yet, they were just watching me with unblinking eyes. At least, until I turned my head to look directly at them, at which point they’d deliberately avert their gaze. Admittedly, it was kinda creepy, feeling like a scene out of a Hitchcock movie, but I trekked on and did my best to ignore them. The most I had to worry about was one of the birds taking a dump on my head or something. If any of the little pests wanted to try anything, I’d be more than happy to turn them all into a popsicle.   
  
Taking a second to laugh at myself for being unnerved by Lana’s furry/feathery friends

Taking a second to laugh at myself for briefly being intimidated by Lana’s furry/feathery friends, I continued on my search. These creepy critters were not going to get in my way. Every now and then, I turned around just to make sure they weren’t following behind me or anything. Thinking about them reminded me of a date that Sam and I had been on that’d almost been ruined when a mother bird decided that my hair made for the perfect nest. Luckily for me, Sam thought that it was cute, she always did have a soft spot for animals. I started wondering if I actually  _ should _ freeze one of the birds and present it to her as a gift after she was actually cured.

I was interrupted from my thoughts when I heard a scream in the distance. My intuition to keep an ear out for that group of hikers had paid off. I immediately turned on my heels and sprinted towards the source of said screaming. As I did so, I noticed that a few birds that were perched in the trees were flying right behind me. I had a bad feeling that they were going to try getting in my way. The screaming was growing louder the closer I got and it sounded absolutely panicked; you could hear the clear fear in the hikers’ voices. I just hoped that I wasn’t wasting my time trying to come to their aid. Heck, for all I know, whatever was attacking them might not have even been Lana.

A howl echoed throughout the woods, followed by another scream, letting me know I was on the right track. After two minutes of running at top speed, I made it to a clearing in the woods, where I found three terrified hikers (two men and a woman) cowering and backing away from a large wolf. One of the men held a big stick in their hand and tried swatting at the wolf to drive it off while the other man was nursing a gruesome slash on his forearm and the woman was pointing a flare gun at the wolf. The wolf wasn’t intimidated in the slightest and snatched the stick out of the man’s hand with its teeth. It looked ready to lunge before I interfered in the knick of time and punched it in the face while my fist was encased in ice for extra impact.

“If I were the three of you, I’d run. Now.” I advised the trio.

“We shall heed your advice and act accordingly,” The injured man said, he and his friends running away, leaving me to deal with the wolf alone. I was thankful that they hadn’t objected or say something like “We can’t let you take on this animal alone”. They likely would’ve just gotten in the way.

The wolf shook its head clear before transforming into the young girl I was familiar with. In place of the overalls I was used to seeing her wear, she instead wore nothing except a crudely made leopard print dress that was reminiscent of what a stereotypical caveman would wear and her trademark red hat. Judging by the look on her face, she was both surprised and angry to see me.

“Luna,” She hissed, glaring daggers at me. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question,” I replied. “Although, I’m more curious as to why you attacked a group of innocent hikers?”

“Innocent?” Lana scoffed. “Ha! They were far from innocent! Take a look down at your feet and you’ll see just how ‘innocent’ they were” I looked down and saw the wrapper for a granola bar lying on the ground. “People like them are constantly leaving their trash lying around where some woodland critter could mistake it for food and choke on it or polluting this beautiful forest that they call home! I could not let their actions go unpunished!”

“Ohhhh, I get it,” I said. “You’re all about saving the planet, recycling and all that stuff, right?”

“Why not?” Lana retorted. “We only have one planet and I am not going to let innocent animals have their homes destroyed because of the destructive nature of mankind! Those fools are lucky I let them live! I could’ve torn them apart if I wanted to!”

“You don’t think that maybe telling them “Hey guys, could you please pick up your trash” would be the better response?” I asked sarcastically as the two of us circled each other like wild animals gearing up for a fight.

“They wouldn’t have listened” Lana snarled. “It starts small with just a candy wrapper, then it turns into them burning down the forest with their carelessness! There’s no bargaining with humans!”

“Need I remind you that  _ you _ ’ _ re  _ human?” I replied.

“Maybe so, but I am something even greater than man!” She said. “With the ability to transform into any animal on this planet, I am the Defender of the Planet!” She narrowed her eyes and me and continued “Which brings me back to my first question:  _ Why _ are you here, Luna?”

“Well, you’ve been making the news lately, Beast Girl,” I told her. “And I was given the task of capturing you and bringing you in safely”

“Beast Girl? Is that what they’re calling me?” Lana asked, having a confused look that quickly turned into one of glee. “That is so metal! I actually love it! I’ll gladly take up that moniker! However…” She glared directly into my eyes as she transformed into a gorilla. “If you think that you can come into my home and take me away, you’re sorely mistaken.”

“Come on, sis, don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” I tried convincing her to back down, not even remotely intimidated by her transformation. 

For my troubles, I was hit by a massive gorilla punch that sent me flying. I bounced off of a tree and dropped to my knees, shaking my head before becoming enraged. If she wanted a fight, I’d be more than happy to give her one. Lana charged at me full speed, her arm cocked back for another punch, but I created a patch of ice on the ground, causing her to slip and crash hard into the ground. I tried stomping on her face while she was on her back, but she turned herself into a pigeon at the last second and evaded my attack. She flew circles around my head while I tried swatting at her. When she was directly over my head, she changed into a hippopotamus in an attempt to crush me. Fortunately, I was able to roll out of the way fast enough to avoid that outcome and retaliated with an ice spear to her backside.

Lana grunted and changed back into human form, pulling the spear from her butt and hurling it at my head. I was quick enough to dodge, but that’s when Lana’s woodland friends made their move. Her bird friends formed a swarm and flew around me, leaving me unable to see Lana. I shooed them away, but their distraction left me wide open to strong kick to the chest from Lana in the form of a horse. That kick knocked the breath out of me, causing me to lean against a tree to try getting some air back into my lungs. As I leaned up against the tree, Lana turned into a deer and charged at me with the intent of impaling me with her antlers. Once again, I proved quick enough to get out of the way and Lana ended up getting her antlers stuck in the tree. I took advantage of her vulnerability by delivering a few swift kicks to her abdomen when I felt something crawl up my leg and bite me.

It was one of the squirrels I’d come across earlier. I reached down and grabbed the little bugger, tempted to crush it in my hand. Before I got the chance however, two more squirrels pounced out of nowhere and latched onto my arm, sinking their teeth into my flesh. I let out a shout as I tossed the first squirrel aside and dealt with the two currently biting my arm. I slammed my arm into a tree, knocking them out.

Their interference gave Lana enough of an opening to ram into me full force in the form of a goat, knocking me off my feet. Those little fur balls were really starting to get on my nerves. Lana reared up to charge me once again as the birds once again blocked my field of view. This time though, I was prepared and used their tactic to my advantage. I could hear Lana approaching and as soon as the birds flew away, I threw up a wall made of solid ice. Lana was running too fast and didn’t have nearly enough time to react accordingly before she slammed headfirst into the wall. It must’ve knocked her for a loop as I heard her revert back to human form, groan and fall to the ground. I stepped out from behind the wall and walked over to where Lana lies prone. For a second, I feared I’d accidentally killed her only to relax when I saw that she was still breathing and in fact, starting to stir.

I had to act quick and pulled out the collar Lisa had given me. I reached down to put it around her neck before she regained consciousness, only for a bird to swoop down and try snatching it from my hand. I held tight and cursed under my breath as me and the bird engaged in a tug of war. That’s when the rabbits from earlier made their presence known by biting at my hand in an effort to get me to let go. The birds joined in, chirping in my ears and pecking at my head.

“That’s it! I’ve had it up to here with you pests!” I shouted before making good on my promise from earlier and turning each and every one of Lana’s forest friends (fiends) into ice cubes. Lana saw all of this and wasn’t too happy with what I’d done.

“How- How dare you?!” She screamed. “I’ll make you pay for that. I’LL MAKE YOU PAY DEARLY!”

In the blink of an eye, Lana transformed into a T. rex and whipped me with her tail, the force propelling me into a boulder. If her intent was to intimidate me, it wasn’t working. All she’d managed to do was give me an even bigger target. She tried stomping on me, but I summoned a giant ice spike from the ground, stabbing her in the foot. She let out a roar and stepped back before trying to snap me up with her jaws. I countered that by muzzling her mouth shut with ice and made several icicles, which I sent flying towards her. My icicles bounced off of her like a ball being thrown against a wall. She attempted to whip me with her tail again, by I leaped over her attempt and instead began climbing it like a staircase. Lana tried shaking me off, but I held on for dear life, making my way towards her head. Once I was standing directly on her head, I crafted two large boulders made of ice and dropped them directly on her skull. Lana swayed back and forth before toppling over onto the ground unconscious, creating a crater in the process. She reverted back to her human form, where she looked as if she were just taking a nap. I wasn’t going to wait for any other distractions and quickly put the collar around her neck. Just to be extra safe, I crafted a pair of cuffs made out of ice and put them around her wrists and ankles. 

I hadn’t expected this job to be exactly easy, but it was safe to say that Lana had proved to be quite a challenge to catch. I expected nothing less from her if I were being honest; beneath the feathers, fur, scales or whatever animal she’d taken the form of, she still had the fiery Loud Family spirit. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have anyone to fight for in the same vein that I did. I hoisted Lana up over my shoulder and started making my way back to Lisa’s. It had only been two hours since I’d left, meaning I made good on my promise to capture Lana with time to spare. Hopefully, my efficiency would be rewarded when the time came. Until that time came however, I could only wonder who I’d be sent to bring in next. Whoever it was, they were as good as got. The desire to save the love of my life had given me infinite resolve and  **_no one_ ** was capable of matching up to that.

END ISSUE 3


	4. Getting a New Lisa’n Life

Woe be to it to those considered geniuses, for the world will never understand their plight. The general population will never understand the struggles of people with the brightest minds. How we often go unappreciated despite the fact that our efforts usually lead to the overall betterment of society. How we are often ostracized because of our brilliance by the envious lower IQ reprobates. The average person will never understand how hard it is to be a genius. It is a struggle that not even my siblings could hope to empathize with me over. Some of them even have the audacity to believe that I’m a villain. The only sensible conclusion I can reach is that they’re so blinded by their envy of my brilliance that they ignore my benevolent intentions. I don’t see any of them conducting extensive research of a deadly disease in search of a cure. Not only that, but I’m seeking to usher the world into a new golden age.

What are they doing in comparison? They’re busy playing superhero and acting as vigilantes. Or, better yet, they’re using their abilities for their own gain, which at times includes using them with malevolent intent. None of them can even come close to making the progress that I am. Sure, they can argue that my ultimate end goal to take over the world is a bit extreme, but if I’m being honest, would the world really be any worse under my world? A world guided by my leadership would see gifted minds flourish and given an opportunity to succeed. There’d be a focus on improving medical advances and scientific studies. It may sound like hyperbole, but with me at the helm, I’d bring Earth into a golden age. 

You see, when I stricken with the mysterious virus, seemingly knocking on death’s door, I had an epiphany. I realized that throughout my short life, I’d been wasting my knowledge and talents. I was throwing away my potential entirely. I made a vow to myself then and there that if I were to pull through and make a full recovery, I’d dedicate my life to making a true change. Ever since I was infected, I can see it clear, I was meant to rule the world, I just needed a little gear. It might take some time for all the pieces to fall into place, but I would ultimately reign triumphant. Never again would I waste my life away when I could be reaping the benefits that life had to offer. 

The work of an intellectual never comes to an end, it’s a burden I’ve come to accept for the sake of humanity. I shall proudly shoulder the load so that mankind may further evolve. After my confrontation with Lincoln, Lynn, and Lio, I had been hard at work on upgrading my killing androids. Doing away with the slow, bulky, heavyset design of the model I used back there, I instead opted for a lighter, sleeker model. Something that could move quick enough to evade attacks from the speedy wannabe heroes I called family. Simultaneously, I was busy studying a sample of the virus, trying to break it down on a molecular level to see what composed it. Much to my astonishment, I discovered that the virus was nothing like any disease found on Earth. From my perspective, there were only two possible explanations: either this was an entirely new strain of virus that had never been seen before  _ or  _ it was a virus completely foreign to Earth, which would explain why it bore no similarities to any disease on record. Whatever the case, it was my duty to find a way to defeat it once and for all.

Of course, the virus’ mysterious origins weren’t the only oddity surrounding it. During my research, I found that this particular strain of disease was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Most viruses had a purpose of some sort, whether it be to reproduce while inhabiting its host or act as a parasite and scrounge nutrients from said host. Aside from spreading itself to other potential carriers, this virus seemed to have no purpose other than to kill its host body, even if doing so was detrimental to its own sustenance. This caused me to speculate that those who had survived it possessed a certain genetic mutation that allowed them not only to survive, but further evolve into an even stronger specimen. Therefore the key to curing it lied in modifying the DNA of  _ every _ infected human so that they would obtain said evolution and pull through.

Any normal scientist would scoff and say that this was merely the process of natural selection in action. They would’ve acted as the stereotypical social Darwinist and dismissed those who died as being weaker, inferior humans undeserving of life. Not I. While it may have been true that they were indeed weaker, I believed that they were still deserving of living. Deserving of a chance to become greater than what they were before. Doing anything other than developing a cure would be admitting my inability to do such a thing. It would the equivalent of confessing my incompetence for all the world to see. For me, nothing was outside the realm of possibility. I **_needed_** to find a cure, not just to demonstrate my superiority, but to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was worthy of leading the new world. I was so close to cracking the code that I could almost taste it. I was just missing one key element. If lower lifeforms such as viruses were capable of speech, there was little doubt in my mind that this one would be mocking me, laughing at me, taunting me over my failure so far.

In between working on my cybernetic soldiers and researching the disease, came the task of keeping up with the activities of my siblings. A few of them had deluded themselves into thinking that they were actually “heroes”. As long as they stayed out of my way, I could allow them to continue playing out their little fantasies. Ironically, it was the siblings of mine who’d decided to take the path of selfish “villainy” who could be the most useful to me. Even the one who’d lost all touch with reality would ultimately prove beneficial to my cause. It was three of my “heroic” siblings however who’d proven that they could be very detrimental to my plans.

My brother, Lincoln, aka Spider-Ace, while appearing to be nothing more than a snarky fool in a costume, was more clever than most give him credit for. I knew firsthand not to underestimate his wit. He’d already deduced my grand scheme back at that electronics store. If he found out the true reason I wanted those anti-gravity modules, everything that I’d worked so hard to build could fall apart. Second on the list was my sister, Lynn, or as she was known by the public, Captain Marvel/Shazam. The fact that she had the audacity to break into my offices, snoop around in  _ my  _ labs and try to undermine the foundation of my research made my blood boil. She wasn’t as deductive as Lincoln, but her powers were what made her very dangerous. Out of everyone in my family, I’d consider her to be the most powerful. Well,  _ second _ most powerful. Perhaps I should get to work on building that power suit that can withstand her power.

Then there was my brother, Lio, aka Shade. In contrast to the other two, his powers weren’t anything to write home about. That didn’t stop him from being a potential thorn in my side as his ability to blend in and travel through shadows made it easy for him to infiltrate any facility. It was the perfect ability pertaining to stealth. That wasn’t my main issue with him however. What truly made him a threat to me were his healing and restoration powers. He could perfectly heal any ailment and perfectly repair any object to pristine condition. That brought into question whether he could potentially cure the virus using his powers. If he could, that would render all my research pointless and he’d become a major spanner in the works. Development of the cure was what was keeping Luna under my employ. If she found out that Lio could cure Sam’s condition with a single touch, our partnership would no doubt fall through. 

Speaking of Luna, my work on the newest killbots was brought to a sudden and brief halt when she entered my office, holding a kicking and thrashing Lana over her shoulder. The latter was screaming threats at both her and me, but I had to commend Luna for keeping a cool head, no pun intended. She seemingly had tuned our sister out entirely, not responding to her threats at all aside from a single eye roll. Plus, she’d kept her promise of delivering Lana to me within the time frame she had set for herself. I could ill afford to lose her assistance. Aside from the Joker, Shade was definitely next on my list. Right now, though, there was the rambunctious runt I had on my hands.

“You won’t get away with this!” Lana shouted, struggling with all her strength in an effort to escape Luna’s grip. “After everything you’ve done, I’ll make sure you pay for all of this! I can’t believe that after all your talk about never selling out again, you did just that and sided with one of the scummiest companies in the world!” She pointed at me and yelled. “And you! You’re behind all of this, aren’t you!? You’re even worse than she is! How could you turn against your own family like this!? You’re disgusting, you rat! If it’s the last thing I do, I swear I’ll rip your face off and-”

With an admittedly condescending smile, I responded to her empty threats by saying “Now, now, Lana, that’s no way to greet your sister.” I had every right to be at least a little smug. With that neutralizing collar around her neck, there was no way she could hurt me. Whether she liked it or not, she was at my mercy. 

“Oh, I’ll give you a proper greeting you self righteous, egotistical little bi-” She shouted before I cut her off.

“Language, language,” I scolded her. “Think about what Mom & Dad would say if they heard you trying to use words like that.”

“Think about what they’d say if they saw what you’ve become!” Lana retorted.

“As if you’re one to talk,” I argued. “Tsk, tsk, attacking innocent people in the woods, you should be ashamed of yourself, Lana.”

“Why I oughta…” Lana growled as Luna placed her on the ground. It was obvious that she was trying to transform into another form, only to fail. Nice to know that the collar was working as intended. Then again, there was never any doubt that any invention of mine would fail to function. Luna and I watched for a couple of minutes as Lana desperately tried in vain to change, quickly tiring herself out in the process. “Hey? What’s going on? Why can’t I transform? I’m envisioning it and I’m completely focused so why can’t I switch forms?”

“My poor, naive Lana, did you think that collar around your neck was just an accessory?” I asked, unable to keep from smirking. “No, no. You’ll find that that collar has cancelled out your powers, leaving you unable to turn into your more bestial forms. However, I am curious, do you still retain the enhanced senses from some of the animals you can transform into; for example, do you still possess the enhanced sense of smell of a dog?”

“I don’t know, let me see,” Lana said spitefully, sniffing the air before sarcastically saying “Yeah, I’ve still got my sense of smell and you? You reek of evil, smelling worse than one of Lily’s diapers.”

“Evil, you say?” I replied. “You’ve got it all wrong, dear sister. All of my intentions are fully benevolent. Evil is someone like you, who goes on a rampage like a wild animal.”

At this point, Luna spoke up, asking me “So what do you want me to do with her?”

“We want our sister to feel right at home, do we not? Lock her in a cage and place her in the kennel with the other animals,” I answered.

“You’ll regret this, Lisa!” Lana screamed as Luna carried her away. “I’ll make sure of it! You won’t get away with this!”

I drowned her out as I went back to work on my mechanical soldiers, something that was made much easier with my psychic powers. I’d been so focused on upgrading their physical attributes that I’d forgotten to make some adjustments to their A.I. Lincoln was right back at that electronics shop, my androids were all might and not too bright. That had to change if I wanted to have even the slightest chance of victory. I’d make sure to keep a close eye on Lana, make sure she didn’t try anything crazy. Although then again, no matter what she did, it would ultimately work out in my favor. She was just another pawn in my game. 

My attention was grabbed for the slightest of moments when I overheard a news story on TV. To most, the story was nothing noteworthy, simply touching on another jewelry store robbery. To me, it was a potential lead regarding the whereabouts of another sister of mine. I could only let out a sigh. Why couldn’t my family put their powers to truly good use like I had done? They could’ve agreed to work with me and help bring about a modern day renaissance. I would’ve gladly carved out a slice for them, whatever they desired. We could’ve been one big happy family again… like we were before. A speck of dust must’ve gotten in my eyes because I found myself having to wipe a few stray tears from my eyes. I took that as a sign to quit fantasizing on what could’ve been and focus on my project at hand.

I finished designing the latest mecha-soldier shortly thereafter. All that was left was start mass producing them so that they’d be up and ready to go whenever I needed them, which I felt would be pretty soon. With that out of the way, I decided to train with my psychokinesis in order to hone them. It was inevitable that I’d be brought into a confrontation with my siblings and in the event that my technology malfunctioned or otherwise failed me, I would definitely help me if I had increased the potency of my abilities. No matter how improbable the scenario of my inventions failing me may seem, I had to take the possibility of it occurring into account. Acknowledging one’s vulnerability is what separates the victors who reap the spoils from the losers who taste bitter defeat.

When I first began my partnership with Paxton Industries or more specifically, Wilbur Paxton, I had a specially crafted training/simulation room constructed for my use. I went to great lengths to keep it a secret from the other employees. Some of them were already weary of having to work under the command of a five year old. A few of them I was sure were plotting my demise, no need to give them further reason to betray me. I stepped inside the room and began messing with the settings for the training simulation. For this particular session, I was going to simulate a possible battle between myself and the team of Lincoln & Lynn. I set the difficulty to the intermediate level and began. 

The simulation instantly dropped me off in the middle of Royal Woods. I had no time to prepare as I immediately was forced to dodge webshots from Lincoln. Lynn attempted to blindside me from behind, but I was able to throw up a force field just in time. Lincoln shot another web at me, but I ducked. I quickly realized that he wasn’t aiming for me when I glanced behind me quick enough to see that he had ensnared a metal bench and wall pulling it towards me. I leaped over the bench, but was hit by a massive punch from Lynn. Fortunately, just like the real Lynn, the Lynn of the simulation was holding back immensely. 

Rolling back to my feet, I saw Lincoln move in close for another attack. I countered his action by using my psychokinesis to grab hold of a parking meter and hurl it at him. His spider sense must’ve given him a heads up because he caught hold of the meter in his hand and swung it at me like a baseball bat. Since that didn’t work, I figured I’d do the next best thing, which was to catch  _ him _ in my telekinetic grasp. He struggled, trying to reach out towards me, but my psychic powers were too strong for him. I heard Lynn flying towards me so I quickly turned around and tossed Lincoln at her. Lynn caught Lincoln in her arms, but her lack of spider sense meant that I could blindside her by grabbing a car and smashing her with it. Lincoln managed to jump out of the way, but his hesitation to attack in favor of checking on Lynn left me with an opening. With a collar in my hand, I sprang towards him, hoping to depower and capture him. 

Once again, his spider sense threw a wrench in my plan as Lincoln sidestepped and blasted me with web. I found myself bound against a street post. The adhesive of Lincoln’s web held quite well and it appeared that I had been rendered immobile and thus, defeated. However, my resolve is rivaled by none and with some quick thinking, I managed to wriggle free. However, I kept up the appearance that I was trapped with the intent of luring Lincoln in for me to use the collar on him. Lincoln was smart enough to not fall for that trap however and instead tried restraining my with more webs. In the heat of the moment, I used my psychokinesis to stop his web dead in its tracks and sent them right back at him.   
  
Naturally, he evaded each of them and leapt into the air. I realized that I had been underutilizing my psychokinesis and caught him in midair before slamming him against a wall. I began pulling him towards me, ready to put the collar around his neck as he desperately struggled to escape. Before I got the chance however, Lynn charged at me, forcing me to throw up a barrier. My force field, while protecting me from Lynn’s attack, wasn’t strong enough to fully shield me from the impact of her blow. The shockwaves sent me crashing hard onto the ground with little time to react before Lynn pounced at me to deliver another attack.

Then, something strange happened. I imagined Lynn suddenly stopping in place, envisioning her being stunned by a sudden jolt of pain. Much to my surprise, my vision came to be with Lynn inexplicably grasping at her head and collapsing to the ground. I was perplexed. Was this merely a coincidence or had my psychic powers evolved to the point where I could attack someone on a mental level as well as physical. Needless to say, further analysis would be required. In either case, the distraction lasted long enough for me to clamp my collar around Lynn’s neck, depowering her in an instant. I watched as she shouted “Shazam!” in vain. Looking to make sure my previous attack wasn’t a fluke, I concentrated and delivered a second psychic attack, knocking her out cold. That only left Lincoln.   
  


Seeing what I’d done to Lynn, the simulation Lincoln began to keep his distance, settling on trying to ensnare me with his webs. I tried hitting him with a psychic attack, but it had no effect. Huh, it would appear that my newfound ability had a glaring limitation in that my intended victims had to be within a certain range for it to be effective. Perhaps I could better hone this power and even evolve it in the future. Right now though, I’d have to work with what I had. I tried to play possum in order to lure Lincoln in, but Lincoln was having none of it. Had he managed to deduce my new ability already? That wouldn’t be unlike the real Lincoln, but I hadn’t expected him to uncover the truth so quickly.   
  
No, that couldn’t be it. What had likely happened was that after seeing what had happened to Lynn, Lincoln had deduced that I had done something new to incapacitate her. Even if he didn’t know what that new something was, he had the common sense to keep his distance until he could figure it out for himself. Very well, if he wasn’t going to come to me, I’d have to come to him. I picked up an empty city bus and tossed it at Lincoln. With his own super strength, Lincoln was able to catch it and gently place it back on the ground. The “hero” in him meant that he instinctively had to make sure that no one was on board the vehicle. Ha, as if I’d be so disgusting as to put innocent people in harm's way, even if they were lesser beings. Anyways, Lincoln’s heroic instincts proved to be his undoing as it allowed me to get in close. He tried in vain to immobilize me with web. It was too late however, he was in my range. As soon as I was close enough, I blasted him with a psychic bolt, stunning him long enough for me to slip the collar around his neck. I delivered one more psychic attack to knock him out, securing my ultimate victory and bringing the simulation to a close.   
  
My first thoughts upon returning to reality were questioning whether I should’ve set the difficulty higher. My second thought was whether or not the evolution I had undergone was real. The ability to mentally stun opponents would be quite useful, not just in battle, but in dealing with subordinates as well. I thought of all the potential uses this new power had. Perhaps stunning them was just the start; in the future, I could maybe be able to induce hallucinations within them. I could be able to subconsciously implant thoughts into people’s heads or going even further, hypnotize or outright control them. And if that were the case, I could enhance my powers to the point where I could control multiple people at once. The possibilities were endless. I fought to keep myself from laughing with glee.

Satisfied with the results of the simulation, I began jotting down notes. The sooner I was able to test this skill on a live person, the better. Leaving the simulation room, I decided to head downstairs to pay a visit to our latest visitor. Perhaps, she’d make the perfect test subject for my new power. I was expecting Lana to fly into a rage upon seeing me, but she was so preoccupied with trying to escape that she failed to notice me when I entered the room. I watched as she still futilely tried to pry the collar from around her neck, only stopping when she noticed my presence.

“Now, now, you don’t want to tire yourself out, do you?” I taunted, flashing her a cheeky grin. 

“You!” She shouted at me, shaking the bars of her cage. “Let me out of here! Now!”

“Oh? And what are you going to do if I don’t?” I asked, stepping so that I was just within her reach only to take a step back when she tried grabbing at me through the cage. It reminded me of playing with Charles back before everything went down.

“You think this is funny?” She asked.

“In a way, yes I do,” I admitted, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly while keeping that smirk on my face.

“Hmpf, I’ll show you funny!” Lana threatened. “I’ll show you what’s funny when I’m ripping you to shreds with my teeth!”

“My, oh my, what’s got you so worked up?” I asked.

“What you’re doing, it makes my blood boil” Lana answered. “You think it’s funny kidnapping these poor animals from their homes and using them for your sick experiments?”

“It’s a necessary sacrifice that must be made for the greater good,” I tried explaining to her, even though I knew she’d never understand. “Besides, animals aren’t the only ones being tested.”

“You’re sick, you know that? You truly are twisted,” Lana said.

“I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand what I’m trying to do,” I told her. “But what you need to try to understand that everything I do serves a purpose. Nothing I do is done out of cruelty. While my methods may seem harsh, but I can say with the utmost confidence that they’ll ultimately benefit everyone and everything on this planet.”

“Cut the crap!” Lana snapped. “You may have fooled everyone else, including yourself, but you can’t fool me! You’re not doing this for humanity or the planet or anyone else, you’re only doing this for your own selfish wants and you don’t care who gets hurt in the process.”

Try as I might to maintain my self-control, I couldn’t stop my face from contorting in anger. I took a deep breath before calmly telling her “How dare you accuse me of being like the common, vulgar, simple minded clods! You have no idea the things I’ve sacrificed for this planet. I could’ve easily turned a blind eye to everything, took my ball and gone home. I could’ve done like you, let my power go to my head, go out into the woods and play Tarzan or some other nonsense, but I didn’t!”

“Aww, what’s wrong, did I touch a nerve?” She mocked me, having a smug grin on her face. I knew her game, she was trying to make me lose control. Trying to get me to lash out, scream, yell, and shout. It wasn’t going to work, I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of seeing my angry.

“Not in the slightest,” I replied. “Do you expect me to behave like you? To act like a filthy animal?”

“Let me out of this cage and I’ll show you how a filthy animal acts!” Lana replied.

“Thank you for proving my point,” I said with a smile.

“I’d rather be in touch with animal side and be honest than be a wolf in sheep’s clothing like you” Lana retorted. 

“Being in touch with your animal side is precisely what landed you here in the first place,” I pointed out. “If you want to continue to go ape, by all means go ahead. It won’t do you any good.”

“You can’t keep me locked up in here forever, you know” Lana said. “I will get out of here and when I do, you’re going to be sorry for”

“Again with the idle threats?” I questioned, letting out a yawn. “Please, don’t waste my time.”

“Whatever you’re planning, you won’t get away with it, that much is a fact!” Lana shouted.

I smiled at her and asked in response “Who, pray tell, will try and stop me?”

“I will,” She answered. “And I know our siblings will too. They won’t let you get away with this!”

“Speaking of our siblings,” I changed the topic. “You should cheer up, you’ll have some company real soon.”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“In order to ensure everything goes off without a hitch, certain siblings of ours require being rounded up and brought here” I explained. “Such as a certain shy guy we know who stays hidden in the shadows.”

“So I take you plan on capturing all of our brothers and sisters?” Lana asked.

“Not  _ all _ of them,” I stressed. “As long as she continues to behave, Luna will be exempt from this list. Then, there’s that  _ one _ sister who’s just too unpredictable to be kept alive.”

“Wait, you’re going to  _ kill  _ one of our own flesh and blood?” Lana replied.

“Don’t act so surprised,” I retorted, reminding her “Just a few minutes ago, you were threatening to tear me to shreds. Are you really stunned?”

“And you think I’m a filthy animal?” Lana sarcastically replied.

“Because you  _ are _ a filthy animal” I told her. “And all filthy animals get put down.”

“Why you no good, rotten little…” She snarled, seeming ready to pounce, presenting me with the perfect chance to try my new trick.

Just like in the simulation, I envisioned Lana being stunned by a sudden jolt of pain and focused on projecting that vision into Lana’s head. Much to my elation, what I envisioned came to be as Lana stopped mid pounce and fell to the ground, clutching her head in pain. She looked up at me with an expression of befuddlement.

“Lisa? What the heck did you just do to me!?” She asked, looking slightly scared.

“Since you were here, I thought it’d be fitting that you’d be the first to experience my newest ability,” I explained. “What you just felt was a psychic attack from yours truly. If I could explain how it works: I imagined seeing you in pain, I projected that vision into your mind and your brain responded by making that pain real.”

“How on, how did you?” 

“Truth be told, I’m not quite sure,” I admitted. “All I know is that this ability will come in handy. I’ll check in on you later, but for right now, try to relax and get some sleep”

I used my psychic attack a second time, knocking her out. With a smile on my face, I walked out the door, leaving Lana to her own devices. Some might say that was a bad move as it gave her a chance to formulate an escape plan, but those people failed to understand that whether she escaped or not, it was all part of the plan. After all, when you’re a genius, you plan for every possible outcome. 

END ISSUE 4


	5. Functional Lanalysis

Two days. That’s how long I’d been in this corporate cesspool. It was bad enough that they kept me locked in a cage 24/7, but the fact that I had to hear the groaning and screaming of both humans and animals as they were being experimented on was driving me to my wits end. At least the blockheads running this place had the common decency to feed me, even if it were only once a day and the food consisted of stale pieces of bread and old fruit. If it was the last thing I did, I swore I would get my hands on both Luna and  _ especially  _ Lisa. Why she had to get me involved in her crazy schemes, I had no idea. I was perfectly content to live peacefully out in the forest and mind my own business. I couldn’t have cared less about her crazy schemes. Now though? Now I would do everything in my power to make sure that the empire she’d built up came crashing down on top of her. That being said, if I wanted my revenge, I was going to have to figure a way out of here. Finding a way to get this stupid collar off would be a good start.

Ever since I got here, I’d been trying to either rip this thing from around my neck or transform into something small like an ant so that I could slip free of it. I was still trying to figure out how the blasted thing worked. There was an electronic lock that kept it tightly secured so it’s not like I could just pick it with a hair grip or a nail or something similar. I couldn’t break it with brute strength nor could I short circuit the lock by dousing it with water. Not helping matters was the fact that the collar seemed to be indestructible. It soon became clear that the only way I was going to get this collar off would be if someone took it off for me, a realization that gave me an idea. While normally I  _ hated _ having to resort to the puppy dog eyes wounded gazelle gambit, I had no other choice if I wanted to get out of here. I lay motionless on my back and waited patiently until the stooge assigned to bring me food to enter the room. When he arrived, I took great strides not to make a single move and only let out a single quiet cough as he placed the bread and fruit in front of my cage.

“Here’s your grub, be sure to eat up,” He said apathetically. “Your sister says she doesn’t want you getting sick or anything.” The idiot turned to leave, but stopped when he noticed that I had failed to move or make any other noise. “Hey, are you okay?”

Just like that, the bait had been taken. The idiot rushed over to my cage to check on me. I kept up the act, only twitching slightly and wheezing as if I were struggling to breathe. The idiot quickly flung open the cage and began tending to me, trying to figure out what was wrong. I continued playing my part, gasping and coughing as I made only small movements.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” The stooge exclaimed. “Ah man, Ms. Loud is going to kill me! Quick, what’s wrong? A-A-Are you sick? Is that what it is?” I weakly shook my head “no”. Although, taking into consideration what they’d been feeding me, it was miraculous that I hadn’t fallen sick. I continued wheezing and coughing, hoping that the idiot would get the hint. “Oh? Oh! You can’t breathe!” He exclaimed and I nodded, gesturing to my neck, pointing directly at the collar. “Ah, I get it! The collar, it’s too tight and it’s choking you!” I nodded frantically as the goon debated what he should do. “Aww man, I’m really not supposed to take the collar off of you” That’s when I used the puppy dog eyes, looking pleadingly into his eyes. Needless to say, the fool fell for it hook, line, and sinker. “Of course, there’s nothing saying I can’t loosen it up to allow you some more air.”

The idiot reached down and adjusted the collar. The second he loosened it, I sprang back to life, slipping the collar from around my neck. The idiot quickly realized he’d made a mistake and with the collar still in hand, tried putting it back around my neck. I was having none of that as I immediately changed into a lioness and swiped at him, knocking the collar out of his hands. The fool reached for his walkie talkie, but I pounced on him, biting him on his neck and sinking my teeth into his throat, crushing his windpipe and leaving him unable to speak. I tossed his limp body aside before I reverted back to my human form and kept a close ear out to make sure no one else had accompanied the idiot. Upon making sure the coast was clear, I stuffed the unfortunate man’s body into my former prison and stepped out the door.

I found myself in the middle of a kennel, where dozens of dogs, cats, monkeys, guinea pigs, rats and rabbits were being held and primed for experimentation. They were all frightened and terrified, with some of them whimpering in fear. Using my ability to communicate with animals, I was able to ease their fears as I assured them that I’d get them out of there safe & sound. One by one, I walked over to each of their cages and set them free. The monkeys were eager to get their revenge, wanting to beat down the scientists who had used them as test subjects. The other animals only wanted to escape the facility. Some of them even told me that they’d been taken from their loving families and just wanted to see their owners again. Once again, I had to calm them all down and assure them that they’d get their chance. 

It was through the captive animals that I discovered we were in the basement, specifically inside a laboratory. The only way out was through an elevator and the only way we’d be able to make it would be if we got past all the scientists. We formulated a plan on the spot. The monkeys would attack the scientists which would provide a distraction and hopefully allow the rest of us to make a break for it and get away uninterrupted. I started things off by transforming into a gorilla and attacking the first geek I saw. The monkeys quickly followed suit.

“What on Earth is going on?” One doctor barely had time to ask before I smacked him with a punch to the face. The monkeys followed my lead, jumping on any doctor/scientist they saw and whaling on them with their fists.

“How did they escape?” One scientist asked, ducking for cover behind an examination table. “We has them tightly secured, there’s no way they should’ve been able to get out.”

As the monkeys continued their assault, I turned into a Boston terrier and guided the rest of the animals through the chaotic scene. I easily could’ve gone for a quiet escape, but there was no way I was leaving these guys behind. We ran through the halls as fast as we could, with the few scientists that escaped the carnage in the lab chasing after us. I encouraged my friends to go on and that I’d meet up with them shortly as I turned around, transformed into a bull and charged the scientists pursuing us, thrusting them into the air with my horns. After taking care of them, I turned back into my human form and rejoined the others. We reached the elevator shortly thereafter and as we waited, I transformed back into a gorilla and stood guard against anyone who looked to stop us. A few scientists wielding tranquilizer guns were the only thing standing in our way. 

My animal reflexes were fast enough to catch every short they fired at me and I invited them to come at me. They wisely declined my invitation, standing all the way down at the other end of the hall. That is, until the elevator arrived, at which point they tried rushing us. A few swift uppercuts put them down for the count and left us free to go. Not wanting to hold things up any further, I hopped on board and closed the doors. As the elevator ascended, I felt a sudden urge telling me to transform into a wall crawler and cling to the ceiling of the elevator. It’s a good thing I listened to the urge to because as soon as the elevator doors opened, a few of my companions were frozen solid in a matter of seconds by none other than Luna.

“And where do you think you’re going?” She asked, acting completely nonchalant as if she hadn’t just frozen a bunch of living creatures solid.

Acting partially on instinct and partially on rage, I transformed into a cougar and lunged at Luna, tackling her to the ground. I raised my paw to slash at her with my claws, but Luna uses her legs to kick me off of her. I was really looking forward to a rematch of our last encounter so that I could get my well deserved payback on Luna. I lunged for Luna’s neck, looking to repeat what I’d done to the idiot who’d been assigned to feed me. Luna was way quicker than that poor shmuck, grabbing me and flipping me over onto back, leaving me stunned for a few seconds. Luna turned her attention to remaining animals who hadn’t been frozen by her initial move. I wasn’t going to let her hurt them and pounced on her once again. This time I managed to slash her left shoulder, causing her to hiss in pain. I went to bite at her again before I suddenly felt my body growing very cold. I just barely managed to react in time and get away from her before she had completely encased me in ice. I’d forgotten about her flash freezing technique and it nearly proved a costly mistake. The good news was that she’d only managed to freeze one of my hind legs before I moved away. The bad news was that that still greatly hindered my movement. If she went for another attack, I wouldn’t be able to dodge it. 

Luna slowly approached me as I struggled, trying to free myself of the ice. She crafted a scythe made of ice and slashed me across my chest. I growled and shrank back as Luna prepared to freeze me over for a second time. My animal friends came to my aid, with three of the dogs pouncing on Luna. The distraction allowed me to shatter the ice encasing my leg and with all the strength I had remaining, I slashed at Luna, knocking her to the ground, just as she had finished freezing the three dogs and encasing them in ice. While I wanted to exact my revenge, I knew that there was no time for that. I gathered the animals that were left and made my escape through the front door, silently vowing that I’d come back for the others. I transformed into a robin and took to the skies, flying off towards the forest. This wasn’t over, far from it. I’d make sure that Lisa paid.

Once I was back in the forest, I took the time to regroup. My battle wounds healed rather quickly and I began formulating a plan. Lisa and the humans thought it was okay for them to barge into my territory and rip innocent creatures away from their homes? Okay, let’s see how much they’d like it when the tables were turned. Oh, and I wasn’t going to strike when they least expected. I was going to strike on the best day possible and make sure that Lisa looked like a fool when I did it.

I spent the next couple of days plotting out my next course of action. I gathered up as many forest animals as I could for this strike. There were my usual companions in the form of squirrels, birds, and rabbits, but I knew that they alone weren’t going to cut it. I recruited the assistance of deer, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, and more for my assault. If Lisa sent Luna out here to recapture me, she’d be in for quite a surprise. Honestly, part of me was surprised Lisa hadn’t already sent her after me.    
  
I had picked the perfect day to lead the strike against Lisa, having chosen the day that the corrupt company she had partnered herself with would be making a major announcement outside city hall with Lisa herself taking center stage. How quickly her world would come crashing down when a bunch of “filthy animals” took the spotlight away from her. Of course, she’d have bigger things to worry about, mainly what I was going to do to her when I got my paws on her. I wouldn’t even give her a chance to regret everything she’d done. When the day came about, I was almost shaking with anticipation to the point where my friends had to keep me calm.

The presentation began shortly thereafter, with a representative taking the stage. I made the first move, transforming into an inconspicuous tabby cat and casually walking in between rows of people as the idiot droned on & on for what seemed like an eternity. Nobody seemed to pay me any attention, with the exception of a few jerks who felt the need to kick at me. I made a mental note to myself to make sure that they got their comeuppance. I spotted Lisa sitting off on the side of the stage, impatiently looking down at her wristwatch. I kept a level head and restrained myself from lunging at her then and there as I continued making my way towards the stage. Finally, Lisa made her way up to the microphone and began to make her speech.

“I’d like to thank all you wonderful ladies & gentlemen for being able to make it here today,” Lisa began. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, thanks to my ingenious knowledge of medicine, Paxton Industries has been leading the charge when it comes developing treatment for the mysterious illness that plagued our fair town not too long ago…”   
  
As she spoke, I continued making my way towards the stage when I noticed something odd. Looking up, I could see a figure crawling along the roof of city hall, seemingly unnoticed by all. Taking a closer look, I could make out a few discerning features, allowing me to recognize the figure as… Lincoln? What was he doing here? Had he teamed up with Lisa too? Pfft, it didn’t matter. If he got in my way, he could get mauled too. I disregarded Lincoln’s presence as I finally made it onstage, while Lisa kept talking.

“While our medical efforts are definitely worth talking about, that’s not what I’m here to talk with you about today,” Lisa said. “What I want to talk about is our companies latest developments in robotics and security…”

I could hear a few hushed whispers as I slowly stalked towards Lisa. “Hey, what’s that cat doing on stage?” “Um, is that cat part of the presentation?” “What’s it doing?” “Should we maybe stop it?” “Quick, grab that kitten!” A couple of guards came running towards me, trying to scoop me up. I dodged and made a break for Lisa, but was cut off by another guard. Through all this, Lisa didn’t seem bothered at all and continued speaking as if nothing were happening. In fact, I could’ve at one point I saw Lisa turn towards me and smirk.

My attempts to get at her were continually interrupted, forcing me to prematurely spring into action and call me animal friends for assistance. The strike started small, a couple birds landing on people’s heads, squirrels crawling around people’s feet; nothing to really raise eyebrows. A few of the squirrels crawled onto the stage, drawing attention away from me for the brief moment. It wasn’t a big enough window however for me to reach me goal. More guards were called out to deal with the growing number of animals onstage. I was starting to lose my cool. I wanted more than anything to just lash out, attack Lisa and get it over with. Still, I tried to stay calm as I ran in circles evading the guards. The people in the crowd were starting to become curious as to what was going on, a few of them becoming impatient with the small critters roaming around. Some of them tried stomping at the squirrels while others violently tried hitting the birds out of the sky. Now I had to deal with the audience testing my patience.

Looking back up towards the roof, I could see Lincoln watching everything transpired roof, I could see Lincoln slowly standing to his feet. Strangely, he didn’t make any other move aside from that. He was simply watching, unsure of whether he should get involved or not. I was relieved that for right now he was staying out of it. It made things so much easier for me. I made the mistake of taking my eyes off the prize for even a second as it allowed one of the security guards to grab me. I wriggled out of his grasp and leapt onto his face, scratching and clawing at it. Through all of this, Lisa continued with her speech, either being so self absorbed and caught up in her speech that she didn’t notice the calamity happening in the background or she just didn’t care. I was genuinely impressed by just how effectively she was able to drown this out. The guard holding me ripped me off of his face and tossed me aside like I was a sack of potatoes at which point, I finally lost my temper and snapped. I dropped the pretenses and changed into a grizzly bear, sending two guards flying with a swipe of my paw.   
  
The crowd screamed as my fellow animals made their presence known. Bears emerging from the woodworks, mountain lions jumping out from seemingly nowhere, catching people off guard as they ran for their lives. I watched as Lincoln finally made his move, swooping down from the roof just in time to save the mayor from one of my wolf friends. He looked at me for a brief second, seemingly recognizing me and was about to make his way over to me before he was blindsided by a charging deer. If Lincoln knew what was good for him, he’d stay as far away from me as possible.

About 30-40 or so employees of Powers Industries or Paxton Industries or whatever the heck they were called ran out to deal with the uprising, armed with only a few tranquilizer pistols and rifles. I couldn’t help but chuckle. This was sure to be entertaining, watching four full grown men try to take on a mob of angry wolves, bears, and mountain lions with nothing but a few pitiful weapons. Even if they did manage to somehow survive against them, it wouldn’t do any good. By now, City Hall has been overrun by animals and soon the entire city would follow suit. Then, after I’d dealt with my sister, I’d keep my promise to the captive animals back at the lab and free them from captivity. Speaking of Lisa, where oh where had she slithered off to? I had a feeling she wasn’t looking forward to our sister bonding time.

The scene had devolved into complete and utter chaos, the presentation having been thoroughly trashed. I guess that she had tucked her tail between her legs and run away. Ironic, considering  _ I _ was the one with the actual tail. Whether she had fled the area or not, it wouldn’t help her since I could turn into a dog and track her scent. Before I could transform however, four security guards dogpiled on me, trying to restrain me long enough for them to inject me with a tranquilizer. I was having none of that, using my freakish strength to throw them off me and send them flying. A few of them came back for a rematch, but I quickly dealt with them using nothing more than a single paw swipe. I stared down at one lone guard, who was trembling with fear. He looked ready to cautiously approach before I bore my teeth at him and let out a low growl. The guard wisely threw away his weapon and ran for his life; he seemed like a good kid so I decided to let him go. With those nuisances out of the way, I transformed into a bloodhound and began tracking Lisa’s scent. I didn’t get too far before I ran into Lincoln.

“Lana, is that you?” He asked, kneeling down to look me in the eye.

“Well who else do you know can change into any animal on the planet?” I asked rhetorically, reverting to my human form.

“I would say long time, no see, but you don’t seem too happy to see me,” Lincoln said.

“That’s because you’re in my way,” I told him harshly. “What are you even doing here? Don’t tell me you’re working with that slimy scumbag we call a sister too.”

“What!?” He exclaimed, sounding almost offended by the accusation. That had bought him some time. “No! Not in a million years! Lynn told Lio & I about the sketchy things she was doing so she & I came here just to make sure Lisa didn’t pull anything dangerous.”   
  
“Wait, Lynn is here too?” I asked before hearing Lynn’s voice yell out “YEE-HAW!”. I quickly turned around to see Lynn wrestling with one of the bears I had recruited and easily manhandling it.

“C’mon, is that all you’ve got!?” She mockingly asked the bear as she held it down with ease. “At this rate, I probably don’t even need my powers to take on you!”   
  
“What is she doing?” I growled, tempted to temporarily forget about Lisa in order to deal with Lynn. “How dare she…” I turned to walk towards her, only for Lincoln to grab me by my shoulder.   
  
“Lana, I need you to call off your friends,” He said. “Listen, all of us want to defeat Lisa. We can work together and…” I didn’t give him a chance to finish his sentence before changing into a lioness and slashing at him with my claws. His spider sense allowed him to jump out of the way with time to spare.

“Just stay out of my way!” I snarled, while Lincoln had an expression of shock. He looked like he wanted to say more, but didn’t have time before having to deal with the wolf from earlier coming back for revenge. That took him out of my hair for the time being and left me free to continue my search for Lisa.

That’s when everything went downhill. With all of the Paxton employees taken care of and Lincoln & Lynn too busy grappling with my companions, I had no one standing in my way. Suddenly, what looked like hundreds of slim, silver humanoid robots with guns installed on their left arms emerged from seemingly out of nowhere. Without any discretion, they began gunning down any animal they saw, be it big or small. The sudden change of tide and display of cruelty shocked me so much that I unconsciously reverted to my human form. My eyes widened in horror while Lisa calmly stepped onto the stage, smug smirk plastered on her face, and spoke into the microphone once again.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by these foul, disgusting beasts,” She said. “Paxton Industries is forever changing the way robotics is handled with our new, state of the art androids. All abiding by the three laws of robotics, these cyber servants are well equipped to handle any situation, including security. In the event that its owners are threatened, these androids will respond swiftly… and efficiently.”

I looked around, stunned to silence by what I was seeing. Her darned robots were even worse than the humans, showing no mercy as they filled anything that wasn’t human with lead. They went to great lengths to ensure that no humans were harmed in the process of their intervention, being capable of shooting squirrels off the heads of Paxton scientists with laser like precision. If I hadn’t lost control earlier, I certainly did now, lunging at the robot closest to me and relentlessly ripping it apart. Overcome by an almost feral rage, I spotted four robots going after a flock of birds and immediately went after them. Dodging bullets, I charged at them, pouncing on each one and reducing them to nothing but scrap metal in a matter of seconds. I was barely fast enough to change into a mockingjay and dodge a bullet fired at me from behind by an android that had sneaked up on me. Flying circles around its head, I changed into a leopard and demolished it before it had a second chance to shoot me. No matter how many robots I wrecked, more of them kept coming and my friends were paying the price for it. Not wanting to see anymore wildlife get viciously slaughtered, I had no choice but to order my animal friends to retreat.

That did nothing to cease the robots’ rampage as they continued to go after the fleeing animals. I defended as many of them as I could before once again returning my attention to Lisa. In the midst of all this carnage, she remained onstage, watching everything unfold with a content smirk. Lincoln & Lynn were preoccupied with trying to stop her machines from slaughtering any more animals while simultaneously trying to save people who were caught up in the calamity, Luna was nowhere to be found, and the security team from earlier had been dispatched. She was completely vulnerable, now was my chance. I slowly stalked towards the stage, avoiding any android that posed a danger, before breaking out into a full fledged sprint. Lisa turned towards me, her expression unchanging as I leapt at her. Not even her psychic stun would be able to phase me now. I was midair when I heard a loud POP and felt a sharp, burning pain in my abdomen that propelled me backwards. Hitting the ground hard, I could barely even move as I looked up to see Lisa walking towards me, one of her robots standing to her side, a thin trail of smoke coming from the gun at the end of its arm.

“Lana, Lana, Lana, I simply must thank you for playing your role to perfection,” Lisa said to me as I changed back to my human form. “I must admit, for a second there, I was starting to wonder if you were even going to show up.”

“What… What are you talking about?” I asked, clutching my stomach and trying to stand to my feet, only to slip back into the ground.

“Allow me to explain in terms that even you can understand,” Lisa said. “I’ll start from the very beginning. The moment I captured you, I planned for something like this to occur, right down to you escaping from the lab. I purposely had you locked up in the kennel with the lab specimen to incite your ire. I knew that with your desire for revenge, you wouldn’t be able to resist crashing my big day so I figured I turn it into an opportunity to promote my new line of androids. I even told Luna to stay behind so that you’d be even more confident in your little uprising. In addition to helping me to showcase my machines as new, top of the line, effective means of security, your actions bolstered my reputation as a well meaning prodigy. Sure, there’ll be some bad press over the fact that my machines killed a lot of animals, but given the fact that  _ you _ directed them to attack the audience, said bad press will quickly blow over.”

“You’re telling me you planned all this?” I asked, skeptically. “Impossible!”

“You don’t rise to the top of a major corporation by being a moron,” Lisa gloated. “Even if you hadn’t escaped, I could’ve simply boasted about the fact that I had captured the terrifying Beast Girl the tabloids were sensationalizing. The only way I would’ve lost would’ve been if you simply didn’t show up”

“Low down, dirty, backstabbing…” I muttered, doing my best to try blocking out the pain.

“The only part I really regret is that our meeting had to end with your demise,” Lisa said. “I didn’t want it to have to end like this, Lana; really, I didn’t. I was hoping that I could manipulate Lincoln & Lynn into mistaking you for the enemy and capturing you for me, but alas, their distrust for me far outweighs their delusions of heroics.”

Speaking of Lincoln & Lynn, where the heck were they now when I could’ve needed them?

“This… this isn’t over!” I hissed, too weak to transform.

“It is for you,” Lisa said coldly. “I won’t stick around to watch you die as it would leave a bad taste in my mouth. If I believed in some form of the afterlife, I’d tell you to say “Hi” to Mom & Dad for me, but I suppose a simple goodbye will have to suffice. Farewell Lana.”

She turned to leave as I rolled over onto my back. My vision was growing hazy and I could feel my consciousness fading. It truly was the end for me. I cursed myself not only for getting some of my friends killed, but for failing to keep my promise to the animals from the lab. As I prepared for the end, a dark shadow loomed over me before it went to black. 

Much to my surprise, it wasn’t the end for me. I woke up to find myself lying on soft grass looking up at the sky. My pain had gone away completely and I was once again able to transform. I shook my head before glancing behind me and seeing that many of my animal friends were at my side, sleeping peacefully. For a brief time, I thought that I had entered the afterlife before I heard a soft spoken voice say “That was a close one, for a second, I thought I’d lost you”

I looked around and saw that the voice was none other than my brother, Lio. It became evident that he’d used his powers to heal my injuries, but how and why he had done that was a mystery to me. 

“How did you find me?” I asked angrily, grabbing him by his collar. Don’t get me wrong, I was thankful to still be alive, but if this quiet little mouse thought he could hold that over me, he had another thing coming. “Last time I checked, your cowardly butt was nowhere near City Hall!”

“I may not have participated in the fighting, but I was watching from the shadows the whole time,” he said calmly. “I apologize for my inaction, but I’m not exactly suited for multi-person fighting.”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “If you wanted to prove yourself useful for once, you could’ve easily sneaked up on Lisa and snapped her neck to put an end to this crap! Heck, if you really wanted to do me a favor, that’s what you could’ve done! Why did you even save me in the first place? Are you trying to get me to join you and Lynn and Lincoln? Is that why you did it?”

“What, no!” Lio replied.

“Oh really, then why did you save me?” I asked. “Even after I nearly killed all those people?” I snarled and transformed into a cheetah, bringing my face inches away from Lio’s and baring my fangs at him, as my animal friends started to wake up as well. “Even though I could very easily kill  _ you  _ right now if I wanted to?”

Lio remained incredibly calm as he looked me in the eye and casually explained “Because you’re family”

“That doesn’t exactly mean much these days,” I argued, circling around him. “After all, look at Lisa. She was none too conflicted about trying to kill me even though we share the same blood. Are you actually telling me that that’s the honest reason you saved me?”

“No matter what you did, you’re still my sister,” he said. “No brother wants to deal with the loss of his younger sister, especially after losing his parents.”

As far as I could tell, he was telling the truth. He always had been sentimental and naive. I changed back to a human and told him “You really are something else, you know that?” I actually had to laugh at his naïveté. “You know, one of these days, your devotion is going to get you killed.”

“Maybe so,” he admitted. “But I’d rather die than let someone I care about bite the dust”

“If that’s the case, you may wanna go after a certain crazy sister of ours,” I told him.

“What do you mean?” Lio asked. I figured I might as well throw him a bone.

“Lisa’s made it clear that she’s going to come after all of us,” I explained. “She’s got these freaky collars that can cancel out our powers. Apparently, we’re the biggest threats to her plans and she won’t stop until she’s captured all of us; except for Luna, but only because she’s acting as her bodyguard. She plans on coming after you next so that you can’t thwart her attempt at developing a cure with your healing powers. The only one she doesn’t plan on capturing alive is Luan, who she says is too predictable to be allowed to live.”

“Lisa told you all of this?” he asked.

“She figured I’d either never escape or that I wouldn’t live long enough to warn all of you,” I explained before admitting to him. “Honestly, I wasn’t going to warn any of you, but since you saved my life, I figured it was the least I could do. Use that information as you wish, I don’t care. Don’t expect any more favors from me, you’re on your own now.”

“What about you?” Lio asked, sounding genuinely concerned about what would happen to me. “I mean, it’s not too long before Lisa finds out you’re alive. What are you going to do if she comes after you again?”

“Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself,” I told him before flashing him a smirk and adding “In fact, if either Lisa or her lackey, Luna, come after me, it’s them you should be worried about because if our paths cross again, they won’t be nearly as lucky.”

I picked up one of my rabbit friends and began gently petting her, glad that she was okay. With all that said, I turned to leave, only for Lio to stop me.

“Wait!” He yelled out, causing me to pause. Shrouding his face in shadow, he walked over to me and said “You be safe out there, Lana. I meant what I said earlier: no brother wants to lose their sister. I guarantee Lincoln feels the same way and so does Lynn.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I told him before I delivered a sudden, swift chop to the back of his neck, knocking him out so that he couldn’t follow me. “You do the same, Lio”

My animal friends began circling around his unconscious body, presumably taking him for an enemy and wondering if they should attack. I quickly waved them off and gestured for them to come with me. It was the least I could do to thank him for having the decency to heal my animal friends as well as myself. I knew this likely wasn’t the last time I’d cross paths with one of my siblings; my only hope was that our next encounter would be more friendly.

END ISSUE 5


End file.
